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RELIGION  AND  CONSCIENCE 
IN  ANCIENT  EGYPT 


RELIGION 
AND  CONSCIENCE 
IN  ANCIENT  EGYPT 

LECTURES  DELIVERED  AT 
UNIVERSITY  COLLEGE,  LONDON 


W.  M.  FLINDERS  PETRIE 

D.C.L.,  LL.D.,  Ph.D. 

I ya-  1^  Vz — 


NEW  YORK: 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER’S  SONS 
153-157  FIFTH  AVENUE 
1898 


PREFACE 


These  lectures,  though  based  on  the  litera- 
ture of  the  Egyptians,  cover  also  some 
general  considerations  which  are  equally 
applicable  to  the  Religion  and  Conscience 
of  other  nations.  They  are  intended  as  an 
attempt  to  indicate  lines  of  study,  and  to 
observe  what  actually  is  the  construction  of 
human  thought,  as  shown  in  some  of  the 
oldest  and  most  continuous  records.  It  may 
be  said  that  the  relation  of  these  to  certain 
standard  views  in  ethics  and  religion  should 
have  been  treated  ; and  that  some  more 
logical  and  systematic  ideas  are  needed  to 
start  from.  But  my  object  was  to  see  what 
really  is,  and  not  to  try  to  fit  that  in  with 
any  theories,  however  highly  supported,  or 
any  views,  however  orthodox.  Treating  the 
divagations  of  human  thought  as  if  they 
must  have  been  systematic  and  logical  has 
been  the  bane  of  all  theories  ; and  many  a 


6 


PREFACE 


house  of  cards  has  been  built  to  match  one 
single  fact  or  principle  which  has  been 
grasped.  I do  not  touch  the  larger  ques- 
tions here,  but  only  deal  with  what  we  can 
readily  see  and  prove  ; and  in  this  place  I 
no  more  attempt  to  enquire  what  lies  behind 
the  growth  of  ideas  here  traced,  than  the 
biologist  enquires  what  lies  behind  the  com- 
parison and  nature  of  the  structures  which 
he  unravels.  We  each  try  to  see  what 
actually  exists  ; usually  a safe  and  needful 
course  before  attempting  to  account  for  its 
results  or  its  causes. 

I need  hardly  say  that  these  are  mere 
sketches,  intended  to  suggest  a mode  of 
looking  at  the  subject  ; and  any  one  who 
might  expect  from  the  title  to  find  a full 
account  of  matters  so  vast  and  complex,  will 
be  disarmed  when  he  sees  what  a mere 
note-book  this  volume  is. 

The  Religion  lectures  are  arranged  as  first 
used  ; but  the  Conscience  lectures  seemed 
better  to  be  here  re-arranged  into  three, 
rather  than  two  as  originally  delivered. 
The  final  notes  deal  with  matters  too 
lengthy  for  the  scale  of  the  lectures. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Preface  . . . ...  5 

Lecture  I. 

THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS  OF  RELIGIONS 

1.  The  need  of  realizing  other  minds  . . .11 

2.  What  is  religion  ? . . . . . 13 

3.  The  origin  of  intolerance  . . 16 

4.  Intolerance  adopted  religion  . . 19 

5.  Mixed  religions  of  mixed  races  . . 20 

6.  Law  of  mixture  of  religions  . . 23 

7.  Mixture  in  Egypt  . . ...  26 

Lecture  II. 

THE  POPULAR  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT 

8.  Magic  in  the  tales  . . ...  28 

9.  Nature  of  the  soul,  Ba  and  Ka  . . 30 

10.  The  tree  spirit  . . 33 

11.  The  sacred  animals  . . ...  36 

12.  The  Fates  . . . ...  38 

13.  The  nature  of  the  gods  . . 39 

14.  Objects  of  piety  . . ...  43 

15.  Isis  and  Horus  worship  of  late  times  . 45 

Lecture  III. 

THE  DISCORDANCES  OF  EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 

16.  Earthly  theory  of  the  soul  . . . . 48 

17.  Elysian  and  Solar  theories  . . 50 

7 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


18.  Mummifying  theory  . . . 51 

19.  Varying  beliefs  about  gods  . . 52 

20.  Due  to  differences  of  race  . . . . 54 

21.  The  Set  and  Ilorus  discordance  . . 56 

22.  The  superfluity  of  Hathor  . . 58 

23.  The  discordance  of  Sebek  . . 62 

24.  Multiplicity  of  gods  of  one  function  . . . 63 


Lecture  IV. 

ANALYSIS  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


25.  General  review  of  the  divinities  . . 68 

26.  Spirits  . . . ...  70 

27.  Animals  . . . . 71 

28.  Local  and  minor  deities  . . -73 

29.  Groups  of  the  great  gods  . . 74 

30.  Animal  gods  . . . ...  76 

31.  Human  gods  . . , ...  76 

32.  Cosmic  gods  . . . ...  79 

33.  Abstract  gods  . . . 81 

34.  Foreign  gods  . . ...  83 

35.  Fluctuations  of  popularity  . . 84 


Lecture  V. 

TFIE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


36.  Material  for  Egyptian  study  . . 86 

37.  The  inheritance  of  conscience  . . 87 

38.  Intuitions  weeded  out  by  utility  . . . . 90 

39.  The  value  of  inherited  intuitions  . . 93 

40.  Use  of  a scale  of  conscience  . . 95 

41.  Curve  of  frequency  of  varieties  . . 97 

42.  Conscience  money  illustrates  the  law  of  distribution  . 101 

43.  Curves  of  various  types  of  conscience  . . .104 

44.  Effect  of  standards  on  the  conscience  . . . ro6 


CONTENTS  9 

Lecture  VI. 

THE  INNER  DUTIES 

PAGE 

45-  Classification  of  duties  . . no 

46.  The  early  lists  of  duties  . . . .ill 

(1)  PERSONAL  CHARACTER 

47.  Character  in  action  . . . . . 112 

48.  Character  in  reserve  . . . . . 116 

49.  Avoidance  of  asceticism  . . 120 

50.  Summary  of  personal  character  . . . .121 

(2)  MATERIAL  INTERESTS 

51.  Material  welfare  . . . 123 

52.  Summary  of  material  character  . . . . 129 

(3)  FAMILY  DUTIES 

53.  Duties  to  women  . . . . . 131 

54.  Duties  of  parents  and  children  . . . .135 

Lecture  VII. 

THE  OUTER  DUTIES 

(4)  RELATIONS  TO  EQUALS 

55.  Honesty  and  truth  . . . . . 139 

56.  Kindness  . . . ...  140 

57.  Public  affairs  . . ...  143 

(5)  RELATIONS  TO  SUPERIORS 

58.  Respect  and  submission  . . 146 

59.  In  business  . . . . ..150 

(6)  RELATIONS  TO  INFERIORS 

60.  Morally  . . . . 152 

61.  Materially  . . . . 154 

(7)  DUTIES  TO  THE  GODS 

62.  In  respect  . . . . 157 

63.  In  propitiation  . . . ..159 

64.  Summary  of  Egyptian  character  . . 160 


IO 


CONTENTS 


Note  A. 

PAGE 

Inherited  Intuitions  . . ...  167 

Note  B. 

The  Ideal  of  Truth,  Lucian  . . . , 169 

Note  C. 

Statistics  of  Conscience  Money  . . 170 

Note  D. 


Nature  of  the  Ka  . . ...  178 


ABBREVIATIONS 

M.  E.  E.  Maspero,  Etudes  de  Mythologie  et  d'A  rchtologie  Egyptienne,  part  ii. 
M.  H.  A.  Maspero,  Histoire  Ancienne , tom.  i.,  1894. 

M.  Dend.  Mariette,  Denderah  texte. 

Rec.  Rectieil  Egyptie7i  (Maspero). 


RELIGION  AND  CONSCIENCE 
IN  ANCIENT  EGYPT 


LECTURE  I. 

THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS  OF 
RELIGIONS 

i.  Before  considering  the  Egyptian  re- 
ligion, it  will  be  desirable  to  look  briefly 
at  the  general  laws  which  belong  to  similar 
cases  of  a mixture  of  religions  and  of  races, 
and  to  observe  what  is  to  be  looked  for  in 
examining  this  case  in  particular.  It  may 
seem  strange  to  say  that  we  are  greatly  in 
the  dark  about  a religion  which  has  left  us 
the  most  ample  remains  of  any  in  the 
ancient  world ; but  in  this  case  we  have 
enough  material  to  begin  to  estimate  our 
own  ignorance  and  to  realize  how  much  is 
required  before  we  can  understand  the 
mind  of  another  race.  That  we  have  in 


12  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


Egypt  to  deal  with  a continuous  record 
of  four  thousand  years  before  Christianity, 
and  an  unknown  age  before  that  record, 
makes  our  difficulties  the  greater,  but 
affords  us  an  unparalleled  spectacle  of  re- 
ligious history  and  development.  And  that 
we  have  in  Egypt  to  deal  with  at  least  four 
distinguishable  races  in  the  earliest  history, 
and  a dozen  subsequent  mixtures  of  race 
during  recorded  history,  again  makes  our 
difficulties  the  greater,  but  gives  a fuller 
example  of  such  a history  of  a religion  than 
can  be  found  elsewhere. 

Before  we  try  to  understand  another 
mind — and  without  such  understanding  we 
can  never  realize  another  religion — we  must 
quit  our  present  point  of  view  ; we  must  try 
to  see  how  very  different  the  minds  of  most 
other  peoples  have  been  from  our  own  at 
present.  We  must  feel  that  the  greater 
part  of  mankind  has  had  systems  ot  lan- 
guage which  would  be  wholly  incapable 
of  expressing  our  ideas  ; systems  of  religion 
which  would  be  a horror  to  us  ; ideas  of  gods 
which  would  be  monstrous  to  us  ; their  ways 
of  life  would  make  them  flee  into  the  fields 
from  our  dwellings ; their  systems  of  pro- 
priety would  bring  them  into  the  police 


OF  RELIGIONS 


13 


court ; and  their  systems  of  morality  would 
land  them  at  once  in  the  law  court.  We 
must  set  aside  all  the  framework  of  mind 
and  thought  and  habit  in  which  we  have 
been  formed,  and  try  to  leave  our  ideas  free 
to  re-crystallize  in  a different  system.  Of 
course  we  cannot  do  all  this,  we  cannot  do 
a tenth  of  it ; but  if  we  can  do  a very  little 
we  shall  at  least  feel  how  different  the  world 
must  look,  how  different  the  motives  must 
be,  among  people  of  another  race,  another 
faith,  another  standard,  and  another  order 
of  things.  Close  practical  contact  with  a 
very  different  race  is  the  best  guide  to 
seeing  how  far  apart  the  organizations  of 
thought  are  on  different  bases.  Learn  to 
respect,  and  love,  and  be  intimate  with, 
a man  of  a far  distant  stage  of  life,  and 
you  see  then  how  very  deep  down  is  the 
wide  platform  of  elemental  feeling  and 
thought  which  you  have  together  in  com- 
mon ; and  you  begin  to  perceive  how  much 
you  have  each  built  on  that  platform,  which 
isolates  you  from  one  another,  and  makes 
the  point  of  view  of  each  incomprehensible 
to  the  other. 

2.  In  dealing  with  religion  the  first  ques- 
tion is,  What  is  religion  ? To  say  it  is  the 


14  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


ideas  about  a divinity  is  to  limit  it  at  once 
to  theology,  which  is  only  a branch  of  it. 
And  what  is  a divinity?  If  it  be  anything 
that  is  worshipped,  we  are  left  at  once  with 
every  visible  object  included,  as  there  is 
perhaps  no  thing  or  no  being  that  has  not 
been  worshipped  at  some  time.  The  only 
view  which  will  cover  the  extremely  various 
instances  is  that  religion  is  belief  concerning 
any  ideas  which  cannot  be  immediately 
verified  by  the  physical  senses.  The  ideas 
themselves  do  not  constitute  religion  ; but 
the  act  of  belief  in  what  is  not  provable  to 
the  senses  is  the  very  basis  and  limiting 
boundary  of  all  religions. 

The  idea  of  animism  which  constitutes 

so  large  a part  of  most  religions  is  expressly 
an  explanation  of  phenomena  by  bringing 
in  a belief  in  that  which  is  unprovable. 
The  ideas  of  primitive  medicine,  which  are 
incorporated  so  strongly  in  savage  religion, 
again  are  based  on  beliefs  about  the  un- 
provable ; and  as  the  limits  of  proof 

expand  by  real  knowledge,  so  the  limits 

of  religion  in  medicine  contract. 

That  the  idea  of  personal  morality  is  not 
an  integral  part  of  most  religions,  is  obvious 
to  anyone  who  has  had  a practical  view  of 


OF  RELIGIONS 


i5 


them.  Right  and  wrong  do  not  enter  into 
the  circle  of  religious  ideas  to  most  races. 
The  piety  of  the  Carthaginian  before 
Moloch,  of  the  Roman  as  he  sent  his 
captives  from  the  Capitol  to  be  slaughtered 
in  the  Colosseum,  of  Louis  XI.  as  he  con- 
fided his  duplicities  to  the  Virgins  in  his 
hat-band,  or  of  Louis  XV.  as  he  prayed 
in  the  Parc-aiix-Cerfs,  show  what  the 
brigand  who  pays  for  his  masses,  or  the 
Arab  who  swindles  in  the  intervals  of  his 
prayers,  prove  in  the  present  day — that  the 
firmest  religious  beliefs  have  no  necessary 
connection  with  the  idea  of  moral  action. 
In  these  instances,  be  it  observed,  we  are 
not  concerned  with  differences  between 
profession  and  practice,  but  with  simul- 
taneous acts  of  the  same  mind  ; deeply 
religious  on  one  side,  but  destitute  of  any 
sense  of  incongruity  between  the  religion 
and  the  action  which  is  recognizedly  wrong 
on  the  other  side.  Another  principle 
of  many,  perhaps  most  religions,  is  that 
they  are  public  and  not  private  ; they  are 
collective  and  not  individual.  They  are 
concerned  with  ceremonies,  with  common 
action,  with  the  relation  of  man  to  man  ; the 
initiation,  the  witch  doctor,  the  tabu,  are 


1 6 THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


their  prominent  parts.  The  ideal  of  a 
purely  personal  religion,  irrespective  of  any 
other  human  being,  and  inextricably  inter- 
woven with  the  highest  sense  of  right  and 
wrong,  is  wholly  different  from  what  we  have 
to  review  in  the  great  mass  of  mankind,  and 
is  a growth  of  which  the  beginning  may 
be  seen  but  very  rarely  in  ancient  times. 
With  that,  therefore,  we  are  not  concerned 
at  present. 

We  may  then  begin  to  realize  how  hope- 
less it  is  for  us  to  understand  the  ideas  or 
feelings  of  those  ancient  people  whose 
religion  we  would  consider,  if  we  try  to 
interpret  their  views  by  our  own ; or  for 
us  to  study  them  without  emptying  our 
minds  as  completely  as  we  can  to  begin 
with. 

3.  One  common  feature  of  many  religions 
is  intolerance ; and  it  is  so  essential  to 
realize  what  this  means,  that  we  should 
look  at  it  closely,  the  more  so  as  we 
especially  profess  in  the  present  time  that 
we  have  rid  ourselves  of  it,  and  look  on  it 
as  being  outside  of  our  present  motives. 
Intolerance  is  one  of  the  strongest  instincts 
of  man  ; it  will  entirely  override  his 
material  interests,  it  can  compete  with  his 


OF  RELIGIONS 


17 


strongest  passions,  and  it  moulds  his  social 
organization.  And  for  what  ? For  merely 
a question  of  whether  two  persons  think 
alike  about  what  cannot  be  demonstrated 
to  the  senses,  and  what  cannot  visibly 
influence  their  condition  in  any  way. 
Assuredly  no  such  potent  instinct  can  ever 
have  arisen  on  such  a shadowy  ground. 

The  practical  working  of  intolerance  is 
that  it  makes  a sharp  demarcation  between 
one  group  of  men  and  another ; in  short, 
it  defines  the  community,  and  prevents  any 
person  drifting  from  one  community  into 
another  without  taking  a decisive  step.  It 
may  be  said  that  this  only  refers  to  religious 
communities  ; but  when  we  look  at  almost 
any  country  or  any  age  but  our  own,  we  see 
that  the  religious  and  political  communities 
are  coterminous.  There  is  perhaps  not  an 
instance  to  be  found  of  warfare  between 
those  who  hold  exactly  the  same  religious 
opinions.  The  Civil  War  in  England  was 
between  Church  and  Nonconformity,  the 
revolution  in  France  was  between  a Church 
and  Atheism,  just  as  the  earlier  civil  wars 
had  been  between  Catholicism  and  Protes- 
tantism. The  civil  and  religious  com- 
munities are  identical  wherever  intolerance 


B 


i8  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


has  a hold  ; religion  defines  the  community, 
and  intolerance  preserves  the  boundary. 

When  we  come  to  consider  how  far  back 
this  state  of  things  has  existed  we  reach  an 
absolute  limit  for  the  action  of  religion  at 
a point  when  man  was  incapable  of  express- 
ing abstract  thought ; before  that  religion 
was  impossible.  But  the  community  is  far 
older ; man  is  a communal  animal,  and 
before  man  the  system  of  community  was 
fully  developed  by  most  varieties  of  animals, 
who  find  in  it  the  best  protection  against 
their  foes.  When  we  look  at  these  animal 
communities  we  see  intolerance  has  the  fullest 
sway,  as  the  essential  feature  in  common 
action.  Every  communal  animal,  from  ants 
up  to  elephants,  has  a violent  intolerance 
against  those  that  do  not  belong  to  its 
community.  And  this  is  the  very  safe- 
guard of  the  system,  as  without  it  outsiders 
would  claim  the  benefits  of  protection  and 
help  without  any  obligation  to  render  the 
same  in  return. 

We  then  reach  the  position  that  Intoler- 
ance is  as  old  as  communal  action  in  the 
animal  world,  giving  the  necessary  cohesion 
to  that  action  ; and  we  notice  that  all  animals 
have  tests  for  intolerance,  they  examine 


OF  RELIGIONS 


19 


others  by  smell,  by  appearance,  by  memory, 
to  decide  whether  they  are  of  the  same  stock 
or  no.  A test  is  needful  for  the  action  of 
this  great  safeguard.  Now,  when  men  be- 
came capable  of  religion,  of  abstract  ideas, 
and  of  inherited  beliefs,  such  proved  at  once 
to  be  far  the  most  decisive  test  of  the  com- 
munity. If  a man  thought  as  you  did  about 
what  he  could  not  learn  by  his  senses,  he 
must  have  acquired  his  ideas  in  your  own 
tribe,  and  belong  to  you.  Hence  Religion 
became  the  conclusive  test  of  community, 
and  animal  Intolerance  adopted  the  human 
acquirement  of  Religion  as  its  most  effective 
way  to  distinguish  friends  from  enemies. 

4.  Thus  Religion  has  nothing  essentially 
intolerant  in  it ; but  the  detestation  of  those 
who  hold  different  opinions  is  merely  the 
instinct  of  the  herd  transferred  to  those 
matters  of  opinion  which  give  it  the  most 
effective  definition. 

In  this  point  of  view  we  see  at  once  how 
it  can  be  that  intolerance  is  so  strong  and 
masterful  an  instinct.  It  has  been  necessary 
to  the  welfare  of  the  community — and  hence 
also  of  the  individual — during  the  greater 
part  of  the  history  of  animal  life  on  the 
earth.  And  the  desperate  vigour  of  wars 


20  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


of  religion  is  because  they  are  the  descen- 
dants of  those  struggles  which  each  animal 
has  made  to  preserve  its  own  species.  The 
prominence  and  sacredness  of  initiation  to 
people  of  all  grades  of  religion  is  thus 
explained  : on  reaching  independence  it  is 
needful  for  each  individual  to  be  put  in 
possession  of  all  the  inherited  beliefs  which 
serve  to  prove  his  right  to  the  protection  of 
his  community,  and  to  test  the  claims  of 
others  upon  his  own  assistance.  This  sub- 
ject has  necessarily  only  been  sketched  in 
the  shortest  way  here  as  a preliminary  to 
our  next  consideration. 

5.  What  the  results  are  of  a fusion  of 
races  upon  their  beliefs  have  to  be  noticed 
before  we  can  deal  with  the  construction  of 
the  Egyptian  religion.  In  considering  this 
the  modern  fusions  of  race  are  unfortunately 
not  examples  to  the  point  ; nearly  all 
modern  fusions  that  we  can  examine  being 
between  monotheism  and  polytheism,  and 
in  such  the  exclusive  claims  of  monotheism 
leave  but  scanty  ground  for  the  previous 
polytheism  in  any  form. 

But  turning  to  the  ancient  world,  there 
are  some  good  examples  for  study.  The 
Greek  settlers  in  Egypt,  we  find,  largely 


OF  RELIGIONS 


21 


adopted  Egyptian  gods  ; for  instance,  Aris- 
toneikos  appears  on  his  stele  as  a mummy 
introduced  by  Anubis  to  the  presence  of 
Osiris  and  Isis ; and  the  mummy-case  of 
Artemidoros  is  covered  with  figures  of 
Anubis,  Osiris,  Isis,  Nebhat,  &c.  As  a 
whole,  the  Greek  settlers  in  their  day 
appear  to  have  readily  adopted  both 
Egyptian  customs  and  Egyptian  gods.  On 
the  other  hand,  Greek  gods  were  freely 
worshipped  in  Egypt  wherever  Greek  popu- 
lation was  in  force.  There  seems  to  have 
been  no  obstacle  to  the  free  acceptance  of 
each  other’s  mythology,  after  the  initial 
question  of  fusion  of  the  races  was  settled. 
The  Greeks  adopted  as  their  great  local  god 
for  the  new  city  of  Alexandria  the  deified 
Hapi,  which  had  been  worshipped  as  a bull 
at  Memphis ; and  they  recognized  him  as  a 
god  that  died  and  was  renewed  by  calling 
him  the  Osirian,  Osir-hapi,  or  Serapis.  The 
human  form  that  was  given  him  made  him 
practically  a Greek  Zeus,  and  so  ensured  his 
acceptance  by  the  Greek  world. 

Looking  at  earlier  times  in  Egypt,  we  see 
the  same  process.  After  the  fusion  of  the 
Egyptian  and  Syrian  races  in  the  XVIIIth 
Dynasty,  Syrian  gods,  Baal,  Ashteroth, 


22  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


Anaitis,  and  others,  were  freely  worshipped 
in  Egypt,  probably  by  the  mixed  descen- 
dants of  the  two  races. 

Again,  in  the  West  we  can  trace  similar 
results.  In  Gaul  and  Britain  we  find  side 
by  side  altars  to  Keltic  and  to  Latin  deities  ; 
neither  of  them  excluded  the  other,  and  the 
mixed  descendants  of  legionaries  and  natives 
worshipped  the  gods  of  either  side. 

When  we  turn  to  the  fusions  in  which 
monotheism  takes  one  part,  we  find  consider- 
able signs  of  the  same  results,  in  spite  of  its 
exclusiveness.  In  ancient  Judaism  so  long 
as  any  fusion  of  race  was  allowed  the  worship 
of  the  gods  of  both  sides  was  freely  followed ; 
and  we  find  Manasseh  building  altars  to  all 
the  host  of  heaven  in  the  temple  of  Yahveh 
at  Jerusalem.  (2  Kings  xxi.  5.)  It  is  only 
by  the  most  rigid  racial  separation  (Ezra  x. 
11,  &c.)  that  a fusion  of  religion  was  pre- 
vented in  later  times.  The  same  thing  is 
obvious  in  the  history  of  Christianity  ; the 
polytheism  of  the  ancestors  of  the  mixed 
races  has  never  been  eradicated  ; the  Keltic 
fairies  were  quite  as  real  to  the  men  of  past 
generations  as  any  of  the  saints,  and  many  a 
man  would  sooner  brave  the  terrors  of  the 
church  than  insult  the  local  spirits  of  the 


OF  RELIGIONS 


23 


moor  or  river.  What  we  superciliously  call 
superstitions  are  the  fossilized  religion  of  our 
ancestors  ; and  we  see  every  day  now  around 
us  men  who  are  far  more  annoyed  by  thirteen 
at  dinner  than  by  breaking  any  precept  of 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  who  believe 
in  charms,  luck,  and  other  barbaric  notions 
quite  as  strongly  as  in  any  element  of  their 
professed  religion.  The  same  is  seen  when 
we  look  at  races  which  have  recently  adopted 
Christianity  ; on  all  sides,  from  Africa,  from 
Siberia,  from  New  Zealand,  we  hear  that 
the  old  beliefs  are  hardly  impaired,  and  on 
any  great  trouble  or  danger  the  venerated 
customs  and  incantations  and  offerings  have 
their  full  sway.  In  Hayti,  where  the  negro 
has  his  own  way,  there  appears  to  be  a 
complete  equality  of  the  old  and  new 
beliefs. 

6.  From  this  review  of  examples  of 
mixture  we  may  conclude  that  the  usual 
law  is  that  one  religion  does  not  supplant 
another,  but  is  only  superadded  to  it,  the 
old  and  the  new  being  each  impaired  by 
only  receiving  a partial  support.  Also  that 
in  a fusion  of  race  there  is  a complete 
mixture  of  religion ; and  in  a change  of 
civilization  an  adoption  of  much  of  the  new 


24  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


beliefs.  And  that  the  question  of  which 
shall  be  predominant  depends  on  the  general 
predominance  of  the  race  or  civilization  at 
any  point  in  question.  But  Intolerance 
assures  us  that  a mixture  of  race  and  a 
mixture  of  religion  will  always  accompany 
each  other,  excepting,  perhaps,  in  a few 
cases  of  an  overwhelming  influence  of  a 
great  civilization. 

Closely  connected  with  this  is  the  differ- 
ence between  a popular  and  a priestly 
religion.  In  every  country  we  see  two 
editions  of  what  professes  to  be  the  same 
faith  ; one  used  in  the  household  or  family 
life,  the  other  in  public  worship  under  the 
direction  of  the  state.  This  divergence  is 
generally  due  to  the  state  religion  belonging 
to  a later  importation  of  a ruling  race,  while 
the  domestic  religion  retains  more  of  the 
aboriginal  type.  We  may  see  this  among 
ourselves  where  many  ideas  of  a future 
state  commonly  accepted  belong  evidently 
to  Keltic  or  Saxon  faiths,  and  have  no  root 
whatever  in  the  doctrines  of  the  Church. 
And  we  note  the  result  of  the  same  action 
in  the  Teutonic  ideas  of  equality  which  are 
inherent  in  the  Nonconformist  rebellion 
against  that  priestly  character  of  the  Church, 


OF  RELIGIONS 


25 


which  is  of  Latin  origin  and  of  Norman 
enforcement. 

So  we  may  reasonably  expect  to  find 
more  of  the  native  parts  of  a religion  show- 
ing in  the  popular  and  domestic  worship  ; 
while  the  later  elements  will  be  stronger  in 
the  official  worship.  Thus  the  divergence 
between  these  two  may  serve  as  a test  of 
the  relative  ages  of  different  articles  of  belief. 

On  another  point  we  have  little  or  no 
data  to  positively  guide  us ; but  it  seems 
not  unlikely  that  older  beliefs  when  partially 
overgrown  with  newer  will  gradually  force 
their  way  into  prominence  again,  while 
the  newer  will  fade  in  importance.  This 
may  be  surmised  when  we  note  that  a 
conquered  race  always  subdues  its  con- 
querors to  its  own  type  after  a few 
centuries  of  fusion.  The  Lombard- Italians, 
the  Norman  - French,  the  Anglo-Irish, 
illustrate  this.  And  what  is  true  of  the 
races  is  probably  true  of  the  religions. 
Hence  when  a particular  belief  which  be- 
longs to  the  people  steadily  wins  its  way 
against  more  ostentatious  and  dominant 
worship,  there  is  a fair  presumption  that 
it  belongs  to  the  other  stratum,  which  has 
been  temporarily  overlaid. 


26  THE  HISTORICAL  CONDITIONS 


We  have  now  endeavoured  to  reach  some 
ideas  of  the  phenomena  of  mixture  in  re- 
ligion ; and  to  gain  some  guide  by  which 
we  may  interpret  what  we  notice  in  con- 
sidering the  Egyptian  religion  in  its  historical 
aspect. 

7.  When  we  look  to  the  evidences  of  the 
various  races  which  together  formed  the 
population  of  Egypt  at  the  earliest  historical 
age,  we  are  able  to  glean  some  valuable 
hints,  mainly  from  the  portraiture.  Three 
distinct  types  are  met  with  on  the  sculptures 
of  the  IVth  Dynasty.  The  ruling  race  is 
akin  to  the  type  of  the  people  of  Punt,  the 
“divine  land”;  and  it  seems  most  probable 
that  the  dynastic  Egyptians  entered  the 
Nile  valley  at  Koptos  from  the  Red  Sea. 
Another  type  found  in  high  position  is  akin 
to  the  early  Mesopotamian  heads  from  Tell 
Lo  ; and  it  is  generally  recognized  that  there 
are  so  many  traces  of  influence  from  that 
region  that  an  immigration  thence  is  a 
probable  factor.  Thirdly,  there  is  a coarse 
type  of  a mulatto  appearance ; and  as  it  is 
certain  anatomically  that  there  is  much 
negro  blood  in  the  oldest  Egyptians,  we 
have  one  element  of  the  mulatto  in  evidence. 
The  light  element  is  doubtless  Libyan,  be- 


OF  RELIGIONS 


27 


cause  throughout  historic  times  invasions 
from  the  West  have  occurred  every  few 
centuries,  and  they  are  not  likely  to  have 
originated  at  the  rise  of  Egyptian  power : 
also  the  negroes  are  most  likely  to  have 
mixed  with  the  fair  races  which  bounded 
their  region  in  the  North.  This  has  been 
stated  at  length  in  the  History  (i.  12-15), 
and  need  not,  therefore,  be  more  fully 
entered  on  here. 

We  have  thus  to  expect  a first  stratum 
of  negro  and  Libyan,  then  a Mesopotamian 
influence,  and  lastly  a Punite  power,  in  the 
religions  as  also  in  the  races. 


LECTURE  II. 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT 

8.  From  the  scarcity  of  objects  of  domestic 
worship  belonging  to  early  times,  it  is  difficult 
to  trace  the  popular  religion  on  the  material 
side,  as  we  can  study  the  official  religion 
upon  the  monuments.  It  is  nevertheless 
the  most  important  source  that  we  can  have 
for  understanding  the  early  beliefs,  as  it 
probably  represents  the  religion  of  an  earlier 
type  than  that  officially  adopted.  Happily 
we  have  a tolerable  outline  of  it  embodied 
in  the  priceless  series  of  tales,  which  reveal 
to  us  so  much  of  Egyptian  life. 

The  first  thing  that  strikes  us  in  the  tales 
is  that  the  gods  are  by  no  means  omniscient 
nor  omnipotent.  There  appear  to  be  three 
independent  powers — the  gods,  fate,  and 
man  ; and  each  of  these  can  act  irrespective 
of  the  others. 

The  powers  of  man  are  expressed  in 
magic  ; and  in  this  we  see  what  is  probably 

28 


POPULAR  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  29 


the  very  earliest  form  of  belief.  The  lack 
of  realizing  what  the  limits  of  natural 
action  are,  the  readiness  to  credit  exceptional 
persons  with  powers  which  we  do  not 
possess,  is  one  of  the  most  frequent  errors 
of  the  uninstructed  mind,  and  one  which  we 
may  see  around  us  at  present.  In  all  the 
earliest  tales  the  magician  is  the  mainspring 
of  the  action.  He  can  make  magical  animals 
by  modelling  them,  and  make  them  live  and 
act,  or  return  to  their  original  material  at  his 
will.  He  can  resuscitate  decapitated  animals. 
H e can  divide  the  river,  and  descend  to  its 
bed.  There  is  nothing  that  is  impossible 
to  him  in  dealing  either  with  inert  or  with 
living  matter.  So  far  there  is  nothing 
spiritual  in  question,  but  simply  the  limit  of 
man’s  control  over  matter  and  life,  which 
appears  to  be  quite  undefined,  and  to  be 
credited  with  any  amount  of  extension. 
Such  was  the  belief  in  the  Old  Kingdom  to 
which  the  writing  of  these  tales  belongs. 

When  we  look  at  later  tales  we  do  not 
find  magic  predominant  until  the  Ptolemaic 
age.  At  that  time  the  physical  magic  of 
the  early  times  reappears  in  full  force.  A 
magic  cabin  with  men  and  tackle  is  made 
to  work  under  water  ; and  a magical  recita- 


30 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


tion  can  make  the  dead  to  speak,  although 
it  cannot  restore  them  to  life.  Magic  is  also 
connected  at  this  time  with  powers  over  that 
which  is  out  of  reach,  so  that  all  that  is 
beyond  our  ken  should  be  perceived  by  eye 
and  ear ; the  birds  of  the  air,  and  the  fish 
of  the  deep  are  to  be  understood,  and  the 
dead  shall  hear  and  see  all  that  the  living 
perceive  and  do,  by  means  of  these  magic 
spells.  This  bears  the  general  character  of 
the  later  magfic  of  the  Gnostics. 

9.  Regarding  the  soul,  we  do  not  glean 
any  belief  from  the  earlier  tales.  The 
king’s  soul  is  referred  to  as  a hawk,  in  the 
Xllth  Dynasty,  and  again  in  the  XIXth  ; 
thus  explaining  the  hawk  which  is  figured 
over  the  king’s  ka  name,  as  being  his  soul 
or  ba.  The  combination  of  the  human- 
headed bird  for  the  ba  of  ordinary  men  is 
doubtless  later  than  the  belief  in  the  royal 
ba  being  a hawk  ; later  because  it  would  be 
the  more  noble  to  have  a human  head  than 
a bird’s  head,  and  the  hawk  must  have  been 
firmly  attached  to  the  theory  of  the  royal 
soul  before  the  half-human  form  was  devised 
for  all  men ; also  later  because  the  sup- 
position of  the  soul  flitting  as  a bird  would 
precede  the  invention  of  a monstrous  form 


OF  EGYPT 


3i 


to  represent  it.  How  early  the  ba-h\rd  was 
invented  is  not  known.  The  oldest  repre- 
sentations of  it  are  not  before  the  New  King- 
dom ; and  as  in  that  age  we  find  another 
belief  about  the  soul,  it  seems  as  if  the 
ba~ bird  was  not  universally  accepted  at  that 
time. 

This  other  belief  is  that  the  soul  could 
be  taken  out  of  the  body  at  will,  and  placed 
in  any  other  position  ; in  this  case  of  Bata 
it  was  hidden  on  the  top  of  a tree.  While 
the  soul  was  thus  deposited,  the  life  of  the 
man  was  independent  of  what  might  occur 
to  his  body  ; but  he  fell  down  dead  if  the 
seat  of  his  soul  was  destroyed.  This  belief 
is  spread  from  the  Celts  to  the  Chinese,  and 
is,  therefore,  a standard  piece  of  psychology. 
But  as  we  do  not  meet  with  it  elsewhere 
in  Egypt,  and  it  is  antagonistic  to  the  ba 
theory,  it  is  more  likely  not  to  belong  to 
Egypt,  but  to  have  been  imported  from 
Asia  Minor  along  with  the  rest  of  the 
Atys  myth  in  which  it  appears. 

The  ka  is  not  alluded  to  in  the  tales  until 
Ptolemaic  times,  although  we  know  from 
monuments  that  the  belief  in  it  belongs  to 
the  earliest  religion.  We  gain,  however,  an 
enlarged  idea  of  it  from  its  action  in  the  tale 


32 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


of  Setna.  There  a ka  has  the  affections  of 
its  former  life,  and  it  will  wander  hundreds 
of  miles  from  its  own  tomb  to  dwell  in  the 
tomb  of  its  mate.  Yet  it  is  uneasy  at  being 
so  separated  from  its  own  tomb,  as  the  union 
of  the  two  burials  is  desired  by  it.  The  ka 
is  equally  visible,  and  viable  whether  in  its 
own  place  or  any  other.  It  can  talk  and 
describe  the  past ; it  can  argue,  it  can  play 
games  with  mortals,  it  can  inflict  super- 
natural penalties.  But  its  powers  cease 
where  physical  force  is  concerned ; Setna, 
after  stories,  arguments,  and  gaming  have 
been  tried  on  him  in  vain,  takes  by  force 
the  roll  which  he  covets,  simply  reaching 
out  his  hand  for  the  book  and  takings  it. 
Thus,  while  the  senses,  the  memory,  the 
speech,  discernment,  and  motion  are  all 
credited  to  the  ka,  and  we  begin  to  wonder 
in  what  it  differs  from  the  living  person,  the 
touch  of  simple  force  undoes  its  powers  at 
once.  It  has  then  all  the  full  properties  of 
mind,  but  not  the  abilities  to  act  with  force 
upon  matter.  Though  this  is  a very  late 
account  of  the  ka,  yet  it  accords  well  with 
the  partial  light  on  its  nature  that  we  have 
on  the  older  monuments.  The  whole  motive 
of  tomb  decoration  was  to  provide  a home 


OF  EGYPT 


33 


for  the  ka,  furnished  with  all  good  things. 
The  models  and  images  of  the  food  and 
furniture,  servants  and  estates,  are  the 
equivalent  of  the  realities  to  the  mind  ; and 
as  the  ka  cannot  exercise  force  upon  matter, 
the  provision  of  actual  matter  is  not  required. 
No  doubt  this  is  a logical  refinement  on  the 
primitive  offering  of  the  cake  of  bread  and 
jar  of  water,  such  as  we  find  in  the  earliest 
tombs,  and  such  as  is  still  presented  after 
six  thousand  years  in  the  tombs  of  the 
fellahin  now.  There  the  actual  material 
without  any  theorizing  is  placed  by  the  body 
for  its  sustenance,  and  its  sandals  and  staff 
for  its  long  journey  lie  by  it.  And  as  the 
offering  is  still  now  made,  so  probably  it 
had  been  made  for  thousands  of  years  before 
the  earliest  burials  that  we  know.  The 
dogma  of  the  ka  using  these  offerings  with- 
out any  material  diminution  of  them,  and 
its  satisfaction  with  the  images  of  the  offer- 
ings, is  evidently  a later  conception ; while 
yet  we  see  the  earlier  idea  in  its  most 
primitive  simplicity  lasting  until  the  present 
day. 

io.  So  far  we  have  dealt  with  man  and 
his  parts  ; we  now  turn  to  the  supernatural 
forces  around  him.  Closely  linked  with  the 

c 


34 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


belief  in  the  ka  and  ba  was  the  worship  of 
the  tree  spirit.  In  many  representations  we 
have  the  tree  goddess  in  various  forms — 
human,  cow-headed,  or  shown  as  a mere 
arm  emerging  from  the  branches  of  the 
sycomore,  and  pouring  out  blessings  on  the 
kneeling  ka  and  the  bowing  ba  bird.  The 
sustenance  of  the  parts  of  the  dead  was 
attributed  to  the  beneficent  tree  spirit,  and 
hence  the  widespread  veneration  of  the 
sycomore  in  every  home,  and  more  par- 
ticularly about  Memphis  with  its  vast 
cemetery  of  Sakkara,  where  the  great 
sycomore  of  the  south  was  a noted  feature. 
It  is  alluded  to  in  the  Xllth  Dynasty  as 
a well-known  point  in  the  country.  This 
group  of  ideas  of  the  ka,  ba,  and  sycomore 
spirit,  was  associated  with  the  domestic 
worship,  and  perhaps  formed  the  main  part 
of  it.  In  the  Ramesseum  dwellings  a niche 
in  the  wall  has  this  group  painted  in  it ; 
another  such  niche  has  a flight  of  steps 
leading  up  to  it  as  a sacred  place,  and  similar 
niches  are  found  in  the  private  houses  of 
Tell  el  Amarna.  The  focus  of  domestic 
worship  then  appears  to  have  been  a niche 
or  false  door  in  the  wall  of  the  principal 
hall,  usually  in  the  west  wall  like  the  false 


OF  EGYPT 


35 


doors  of  tombs;  this  was  dignified  with 
steps  in  some  cases,  and  painted  with  the 
objects  of  adoration,  the  ancestral  double 
and  spirit,  ka  and  ba,  and  the  tree-genius 
who  preserved  them. 

The  tree  is  named  as  the  residence  of 
a human  spirit  in  the  XIXth  Dynasty,  when 
Bata  places  his  soul  on  a tree  to  preserve 
it,  and  drops  dead  himself  when  the  tree  is 
cut  down.  Again,  he  is  transformed  into 
two  trees,  and  speaks  from  a tree  to  his 
wicked  wife.  Hence  it  seems  that  a tree 
with  its  thick  hiding  foliage  and  deep  shade 
was  thought  to  be  particularly  a suitable 
abode  for  both  human  and  divine  spirits  ; 
and  “ the  sycomore  of  the  south  ” is  called 
the  living  body  of  Hathor. 

Offerings  were  made  to  trees,  evidently 
to  propitiate  the  spirit  which  dwelt  in 
them ; the  peasant  is  figured  bowing  to 
the  sycomore  in  his  field,  and  surrounding 
it  with  jars  of  drink  offerings ; and  when 
Bata  is  transformed  into  two  Persea  trees, 
“there  were  offerings  made  to  them.” 

What  divinities  were  associated  with  trees 
is  a very  variable  point.  The  Sycomore  has 
always  a goddess,  generically  described  as 
Hathor,  or  specifically  as  Nut,  Selk,  or  Neit. 


36  THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 

This  variation  shows  that  the  tree  does  not 
belong  to  any  of  these  deities  in  particular, 
but  is  only  the  residence  of  a beneficent 
tree-goddess,  who  was  identified  with  any 
goddess  that  was  prominent.  In  fact  it 
belongs  to  a different  religion  to  that  of 
these  human  goddesses,  and  was  combined 
with  them  afterwards.  In  one  case  a god 
is  named,  when  a tall  palm  is  identified  with 
Tahuti. 

1 1.  The  part  that  animals  hold  in  the 
religion  is  important,  yet  we  find  very  little 
trace  of  it  in  the  tales.  In  the  earliest 
time  a crocodile  is  always  the  minister  of 
vengeance,  but  is  not  regarded  as  divine. 
In  the  Xllth  Dynasty  the  serpents  of  the 
enchanted  island  talk,  and  in  the  XIXth 
Dynasty  the  kine  of  Bata  talk.  The  first 
case  is  however  a part  of  distant  marvels  ; 
and  the  second  probably  means  that  Bata 
was  so  observant  and  sympathetic  with  his 
cattle,  that  their  actions  were  like  speech  to 
him.  It  does  not  then  seem  that  talking 
animals,  which  are  so  familiar  in  other 
beliefs,  had  any  real  place  in  Egyptian 
ideas.  The  worship  of  the  sacred  bull 
appears  in  the  tale  of  Bata  ; and  there  a 
great  feast  is  made  to  the  animal  god  just 


OF  EGYPT 


37 


before  he  is  killed.  That  killing  the  god 
was  part  of  the  religion  we  can  well  believe 
when  we  see  it  in  other  countries  ; and  even 
in  Egypt  a ram  was  killed  yearly  at  Thebes, 
and  the  statue  of  Amen  covered  with  its 
skin.  The  actual  remains  of  the  bulls  found 
in  the  Serapeum  by  Mariette  show  that  in 
the  XIXth  Dynasty  they  were  consumed 
by  the  worshippers,  as  is  shown  by  Bata’s 
wife  eating  the  bull’s  liver.  That  the 
slaughter  of  venerated  animals  was  not 
discordant  to  Egyptian  ideas,  we  also  see 
by  the  death  of  the  cow  which  had  been 
specially  selected  and  brought  up  as  a mate 
to  the  Apis  bull,  but  which  was  killed  im- 
mediately after  consorting  with  him.  The 
Egyptian  regarded  a continuity  of  life  as 
so  assured  through  the  ka  and  the  ba,  that 
it  did  not  make  much  break  in  the  life  for 
it  to  be  transferred  from  one  state  to  the 
other. 

Other  popular  worships  of  animals  are 
seen  in  the  treatment  of  the  sacred  serpent 
or  good  genius  of  buildings  and  places ; 
and  the  serpent  goddess  of  agriculture 
Renent,  who  was  adored  with  offerings. 
This  is  probably  a very  primitive  worship, 
as  also  that  of  the  cynocephali  baboons, 


38 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


with  their  solemn  faces,  which  gave  them 
the  credit  of  the  embodiment  of  wisdom, 
and  their  activity  at  sunrise,  when  they  were 
supposed  to  adore  the  sun-god. 

i 2.  Of  the  purely  spiritual  conceptions  is 
that  of  the  fates,  who  predict  an  enigmatical 
future  for  the  man  at  his  birth.  In  the  early 
time  the  goddess  Meskhent — a birth-deity — 
predicts  the  future  of  the  infant ; but  in 
the  New  Kingdom  we  see  that  a group  of 
goddesses,  generically  termed  Hathors,  are 
present  and  give  an  oracular  utterance  which 
may  have  several  interpretations.  They 
appear  to  see  a part  of  the  future,  to  be 
able  to  assign  the  limits  of  its  uncertainties, 
but  not  to  control  or  regulate  it  in  the  least. 
Much  of  the  choice  of  the  future  lies  with 
man  himself ; his  own  foresight  and  in- 
genuity is  to  help  him  ; yet  he  cannot  step 
beyond  certain  limits  where  his  fate  meets 
him,  and  bounds  his  freedom  of  action. 
This  is  a very  practical  version  of  the 
limited  freedom  of  action  which  men  possess; 
reconciling  the  apparent  ability  of  man  to 
determine  his  condition,  with  the  ruthless 
chapter  of  accidents  which  binds  him.  He 
has  a certain  course  and  end  broadly  assigned 
to  him,  within  the  limits  of  which  he  can 


OF  EGYPT 


39 


modify  his  life  and  rule  his  state.  When  he 
has  overcome  one  of  the  possibilities  of  evil 
which  beset  him,  he  is  thenceforth  free  of 
that  risk  for  the  future,  “ Thy  god  has  given 
one  of  thy  dooms  into  thy  hand.”  This 
conception  would  seem  to  have  arisen  from 
a man  overcoming  some  particular  tempta- 
tion which  might  be  a doom  to  him,  and  so 
being  delivered  from  its  overwhelming  him 
in  future. 

13.  We  lastly  turn  to  what  views  the 
people  had  of  their  gods.  In  the  Old 
Kingdom  tales  we  find  Ra  supreme ; but 
that  is  to  be  expected,  as  the  Vth  Dynasty, 
which  is  in  question,  is  described  as  being 
descended  from  Ra,  and  called  its  kings 
“ Sons  of  Ra.”  Ra  there  orders  the  other 
deities,  Isis  and  Nebhat,  the  osiride  god- 
desses, Meskhent,  the  name  goddess,  Hekt, 
the  goddess  of  birth,  and  Khnumu,  the 
creative  god,  who  gives  strength  to  the 
limbs  of  the  new-born.  All  of  these  deities 
are  purely  human  in  form,  and  they  appear  as 
a party  of  travelling  dancing  girls  with  a 
porter.  It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  osiride 
group  were  the  prominent  human  divinities 
— as  distinguished  from  the  cosmic  Ra — at 
that  time ; and  that  the  domestic  deities  of 


40 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


creation  and  birth  were  familiar  to  the  Egyp- 
tian. But  no  marvels  are  attributed  to  them 
beyond  the  control  of  the  weather,  and  the 
making  of  models  of  royal  crowns  which 
gave  out  a sound  of  festivity  afterwards 
when  hidden. 

In  a later  time  we  find  in  the  New  King- 
dom Ra  is  appealed  to  as  a deliverer,  who 
can  interpose  obstacles  to  an  unjust  attack. 
And  swearing  by  Ra-Harakhti  was  the 
regular  form  of  a strong  asseveration  of  the 
truth,  as  it  occurs  in  two  tales. 

Beside  Ra,  we  find  in  the  XIXth  Dynasty 
an  Ennead,  or  group  of  nine  gods,  who  are 
popularly  supposed  to  walk  together  on  the 
earth  to  view  all  that  passes.  Ra-Harakhti 
is  at  the  head  of  this  group,  and  Khnumu  is 
of  the  company ; but  the  remainder  are 
unspecified,  and  as  the  well-known  enneads 
do  not  contain  Khnumu  we  cannot  be  certain 
who  was  implied  in  this,  or,  indeed,  if  any 
gods  were  referred  to  in  particular.  Pro- 
bably it  only  implies  the  principal  gods  in 
general.  But  it  is  remarkable  that  they  do 
not  rule  immovable  in  heaven,  but  walk 
together  on  the  earth  “to  look  upon  the 
whole  land.”  Khnumu,  the  potter  who 
forms  mankind  on  his  wheel,  here  frames  a 


OF  EGYPT 


4i 


non-human  woman,  who  is  devoid  of  all 
natural  feeling  or  passions,  and  has  but  a 
craving  for  power. 

On  reaching  the  Ptolemaic  times  we  get 
further  light  on  the  popular  conceptions  of 
the  gods.  When  Na-nefer-ka-ptah  by  magic 
obtains  the  hidden  book  of  Thoth,  it  takes 
apparently  a day  or  two  for  Thoth  to  dis- 
cover the  loss.  He  is  therefore  dependent 
upon  sources  of  information,  and  is  not 
omniscient.  Next  he  goes  to  Ra  to 
complain  ; Ra  therefore  is  not  omniscient. 
And  Ra  gives  Thoth  permission  to  punish 
Na-nefer-ka-ptah ; Thoth  therefore  cannot 
avenge  himself  without  permission.  Next, 
neither  of  the  gods  can  act  directly  by  his 
will  upon  man  or  matter,  as  Ra  “sent  a 
power  from  heaven  with  the  command  ” to 
injure  Na-nefer-ka-ptah.  This  introduces 
another  conception,  that  of  angels  or 
messengers,  which  became  so  important  in 
gnosticism  and  Christianity.  The  power 
accordingly  acts  at  once,  and  evil  ensues, 
the  child  is  drowned.  The  drowned  child 
can  be  forced  into  speech  by  reading  magic 
spells  over  him ; and  in  this  state  he  can 
reveal  what  the  gods  had  done.  This 
suggests  the  idea  that  the  news  of  the 


42 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


spiritual  world  goes  round  from  mouth  to 
mouth  as  in  this  world  ; and  when  a spirit 
once  went  there  the  acts  of  the  gods  became 
known  to  it. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  belief  in  the  gods 
was  entirely  different  from  modern  ideas. 
They  were  neither  self- informed  nor  self- 
acting ; but  they  depended  on  information 
received,  and  they  acted  through  messengers. 
This  may  be  a later  form  of  belief,  as  in 
earlier  times  we  see  Bata  calling  on  Ra,  and 
Ra  directly  listening  to  him  and  attending 
to  his  needs. 

Passing  now  from  the  tales  we  may  glean 
somewhat  about  the  popular  beliefs  from  the 
lesser  remains,  such  as  private  tablets  and 
little  figures  of  gods,  which  are  frequently 
found,  and  yet  which  are  some  of  them  of 
different  type  to  anything  pourtrayed  in 
the  temples.  The  serpent-worship  of  the 
goddess  Renent  Nebtka,  the  divinity  of 
cultivation,  is  shown  at  a harvest  festival. 
A great  heap  of  the  grain  is  piled  up  before 
her  ; the  long-handled  shovels  and  forks  and 
the  winnowing  scrapers  are  stuck  upright 
into  the  heap  as  being  done  with  ; two  men 
are  still  piling  on  the  grain  from  measures 
which  they  carry  ; while  beyond,  the 


OF  EGYPT 


43 


winnowers  are  finishing  the  winnowing  over 
another  heap  of  grain.  This  is  a scene  of 
the  beginning  of  the  XIXth  Dynasty,  and 
shows  a popular  festival  of  that  time. 

14.  The  ivory  wands  covered  with  incised 
figures  belonging  to  the  Middle  Kingdom 
show  a large  number  of  deities  and  genii, 
which  have  more  connection  with  the  Book 
of  the  Dead  than  with  any  state  worship. 
Among  these  the  great  cat,  who  is  in  the 
Persea  tree  of  Heliopolis,  the  Mehurt  cow, 
and  the  eye  of  Horus,  all  belong  to  the 
XVI I th  chapter,  which  is  considered  one 
of  the  earliest.  Beside  these  there  are 
shown  Taurt  devouring  a captive ; Bes, 
both  in  male  and  female  form,  holding 
serpents ; Taurt  and  Sekhet  devouring 
serpents  ; and  Set.  The  tortoise,  frog,  and 
scarab  appear ; and  several  monsters,  as 
a serpent -headed  leopard  ; hawk -headed 
leopard  winged,  with  a human  head  between 
the  wings ; sphinx ; and  winged  uraeus. 
These  figures  are  akin  to  those  monsters 
represented  at  Beni  Hasan.  This  group  of 
supernatural  figures  gives  an  outline  of  the 
commonly  received  ideas,  apparently  con- 
nected with  the  coming  forth  from  Duat,  or 
the  under- world,  like  the  XVI I th  chapter, 


44 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


which  has  evidently  a connection  with  these 
carvinQ-s. 

Coming  to  later  times  one  of  the  most 
usual  objects  of  popular  worship  is  a small 
stele  or  tablet  with  Horus  on  the  crocodiles. 
In  the  earliest  form,  about  the  XVIIIth- 
XlXth  Dynasty  (basalt  tablet,  F.P.  coll.), 
Horus  is  a hunter  armed  with  bow  and 
quiver  ; we  see  then  that  the  animals  must 
be  those  which  he  has  slain.  As  Maspero 
has  pointed  out,  all  the  animals  figured  were 
supposed  to  fascinate  man,  the  lion,  oryx, 
scorpion,  serpent,  and  crocodile  ; and  Horus 
conquered  them  to  protect  man.  Next,  in 
the  XXI  Ind  Dynasty,  we  have  a similar 
idea  of  Ptah-Sokar,  the  deformed  pigmy 
figure,  who  stands  on  crocodiles,  and  grasps 
serpents  in  his  hands.  These  serpents  some- 
times are  figured  as  being  half  in  his  mouth, 
with  only  the  tails  out.  This  is  another  view 
of  the  protection  against  serpents  by  eating 
them,  which  is  the  common  practice  of  South 
African  people  at  present,  and  probably  of  all 
serpent  charmers.  Experiments  very  com- 
pletely performed  with  serpent  poisons,  and 
just  published,  show  that  doses  of  poison 
and  also  of  serpent’s  blood  taken  internally 
confer  on  the  eater  immunity  from  the  effects 


OF  EGYPT 


45 


of  injected  poison,  such  as  that  infused  by 
bites.  The  Ptah-Sokar  eating  serpents  is, 
therefore,  overcoming  them  in  another  way. 
In  the  later  Ptolemaic  times,  tablets  of 
Horus  on  the  crocodiles  are  very  common, 
crowded  on  the  back  and  sides  with  in- 
scriptions which  have  neither  accuracy  nor 
meaning.  Such  tablets  abound  just  when 
the  use  of  other  amulets  came  into  common 
fashion,  and  they  lead  on  to  the  great  belief 
in  amulets  in  gnostic  times.  We  see  then 
here  an  important  element  of  popular  religion 
in  these  tablets,  which  were  to  serve  for  the 
protection  of  the  owner  from  noxious  animals. 

1 5.  The  main  worship  of  the  people  in  the 
later  times  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  occupa- 
tions seems  to  have  been  concentrated  upon 
Isis  and  Horus.  The  innumerable  cheap 
terra-cotta  figures  of  Horus  in  all  forms,  are 
the  commonest  objects  of  the  Roman  period. 
With  a hole  in  the  back  to  hang  on  a peg  in 
the  wall,  they  were  placed  in  the  huts  of  the 
poorest  of  the  people ; their  cost  must  have 
been  so  minute  that  none  would  be  so  poor 
as  not  to  own  one.  No  other  god  seems  to 
have  had  such  popularization,  and  even  Isis 
and  Serapis  come  far  behind  Horus  in  their 
general  acceptance.  Broadly  speaking,  the 


4 6 


THE  POPULAR  RELIGION 


Egyptians  were  a Horus-worshi pping  people 
in  Roman  times,  honouring  Isis  also  as  his 
mother ; and  the  influence  that  this  had  on 
the  development  of  Christianity  was  pro- 
found. We  may  even  say  that  but  for  the 
presence  of  Egypt  we  should  never  have 
seen  a Madonna.  Isis  had  obtained  a great 
hold  on  the  Romans  under  the  earlier 
Emperors,  her  worship  was  fashionable  and 
wide-spread ; and  when  she  found  a place  in 
the  other  great  movement,  that  of  the 
Galileans,  when  fashion  and  moral  conviction 
could  shake  hands,  then  her  triumph  was 
assured,  and,  as  the  Mother  Goddess,  she  has 
ruled  the  devotion  of  Italy  ever  since.  How 
much  Horus  has  entered  into  the  popular 
development  of  Christianity- — how  the  figure 
of  the  Divine  Teacher,  set  in  a sad,  stern 
frame  of  Semitic  and  Syrian  influence,  has 
become  changed  into  the  rampant  baby  of 
Correggio— is  seen  readily  when  we  note  the 
general  popular  worship  of  the  child  Horus, 
and  see  that  passing  over  into  the  rising 
influence  of  Christianity.  In  one  small 
particular  there  is  much  significance.  The 
well-known  Christian  monogram  ( khi-rho ) 
may  be  seen  in  course  of  gradual  formation 
in  Egypt — or  possibly  in  course  of  alteration  ; 


OF  EGYPT 


47 


but  the  rho  is  usually  figured  as  an  upright 
staff  with  the  lock  of  Horus  at  the  top,  and 
not  the  letter  rho.  Essentially  it  is  the  sign 
of  Horus,  and  only  became  Christian  by 
adoption. 

We  have  now  briefly  gone  over  the 
various  elements  of  popular  religion  in 
Egypt,  as  distinct  from  that  of  the  temples ; 
religion  which  was  far  less  influenced  by 
political  and  other  changes,  and  was  really 
the  vital  belief  of  the  greater  part  of  the 
inhabitants.  It  is  simpler  than  the  official 
and  priestly  worship,  and  has  a much  greater 
vitality.  Buried  in  the  hearts  of  millions, 
changes  could  not  uproot  it,  and  with 
nominal  modifications,  and  with  new  ideals 
implanted  in  it,  the  old  framework  has 
largely  kept  its  hold  down  to  the  present 
time,  excepting  where  the  violent  mono- 
theism of  Islam  has  crushed  it.  The 
conquests  of  Islam  were  not  so  much  over 
Christianity  as  over  the  elder  paganism, 
which  had  retained  its  hold  and  its  position  ; 
and  it  was  that  alone  which  gave  force  and 
point  to  the  invectives  of  Muhammed 
against  the  far  older  Tritheism,  Mariolatry, 
and  Saint-worship  which  went  by  the  name 
of  Christianity  in  his  times. 


LECTURE  III. 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF  EGYPTIAN 
RELIGION 

1 6.  The  discordances  and  contradictions 
in  any  religion  are  one  of  the  most  important 
evidences  of  its  history.  The  ruling  idea  of 
most  religious  beliefs  is  the  need  of  account- 
ing for  something,  and  of  explaining  the 
mysteries  of  life.  Hence  beliefs  which 
explain  the  unseen  in  a totally  different 
way  and  with  different  ideals  will  not  be 
needlessly  produced  at  a single  source. 
Some  new  influence  must  be  at  work  to 
cause  diversity ; and  when  two  views  live 
on  side  by  side  with  partial  fusion,  it  is — like 
instances  of  two  mythologies — an  evidence 
of  a mixture  of  peoples  who  had  held 
varying  opinions. 

This  discrepancy  in  belief  is  most  charac- 
teristic of  Egypt,  and  we  need  to  disentangle 
the  elements  before  we  can  venture  to  classify 
them. 


48 


DISCORDANCES  OF  RELIGION  49 


Concerning  the  future  state  of  man  there 
were  at  least  three  wholly  contradictory 
theories  ; the  Earthly,  the  Elysian,  and  the 
Solar  theories  : and  it  is  probable  that  the 
mummy  theory  is  a fourth. 

The  Earthly  theory  was  that  of  the  ka , or 
double,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  had  the  feel- 
ings and  the  activities  of  life,  only  limited 
by  the  inability  to  act  on  matter.  This  ka 
required  a supply  of  food,  in  the  form  of 
continually  renewed  offerings,  for  which  a 
place  of  offering  was  provided  in  front  of  the 
doorway  which  led  to  the  tomb-pit.  Up  that 
pit  from  the  sepulchre  passed  the  ka , and 
also  the  ba  or  soul,  and  coming  out  through 
the  imitation  door  that  was  provided  it  fed 
on  the  offerings  which  were  laid  on  the  altar 
in  front  of  the  door.  Soon  a recess  was 
made  for  the  altar  by  added  coatings  to  the 
mastaba  that  developed  into  a chamber,  and 
then  that  chamber  was  elaborated  into  a 
dwelling  for  the  ka , its  walls  were  covered 
with  figures  of  offerings  and  of  servants,  and 
large  granaries  and  store-rooms  were  pro- 
vided in  it.  Being  incapable  of  acting  on 
matter,  the  image  of  an  offering  was  as  good 
as  the  object  itself  to  the  ka ; and  so  the 
continually  renewed  offerings  of  the  earliest 

D 


50 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


times  became  changed  for  the  permanent 
pictures  of  the  offerings.  This  view  of  the 
ka  and  the  ba  was  associated  with  the  tree- 
spirit  worship,  and  these  together  formed  a 
domestic  worship,  which  was  associated  with 
niches  or  figures  of  doorways  in  dwellings 
where  the  ancestors  were  adored.  All  of  this 
theory  implies  a continued  after-life  upon  the 
earth,  dependent  on  earthly  support. 

17.  The  Elysian  theory  was  entirely  in- 
dependent of  any  connection  with  the  earth. 
The  dead  became  the  subjects  of  the  great 
god  of  the  dead,  Osiris  ; they  lived  in  Aalu, 
a mythic  land  beyond  the  ken  of  man,  at  first 
supposed  to  be  on  earth  or  later  on  in  heaven. 
There  they  navigated  on  the  canals,  they 
tilled  the  soil,  they  planted,  they  watered, 
they  reaped.  And  admission  to  this  dupli- 
cate of  earthly  life  was  obtained  by  a test 
of  weighing  the  heart  to  see  if  it  were  true 
and  right,  and  denying  the  commission  of 
all  earthly  sins  before  the  judgment-seat  of 
Osiris.  Here  we  have  a totally  different 
theory,  and  one  which  left  no  time  or  oppor- 
tunity for  the  ka  to  wander  on  this  earth, 
and  no  need  for  it  to  be  provided  with 
earthly  sustenance. 

The  Solar  theory  was  equally  independent 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


Si 


of  both  of  the  others.  The  deceased  flew 
up  to  the  sun,  and  joined  the  solar  bark  : he 
passed  through  all  the  perils  of  the  night 
under  the  protection  of  Ra,  and  emerged 
into  new  day  at  sunrise.  For  ever  he  dwelt 
with  Ra,  and  shared  his  dangers  by  night 
and  his  success  by  day. 

1 8.  Now,  none  of  these  theories,  it  will 
be  observed,  requires  the  mummy.  The 
Elysian  and  Solar  theories  ignore  the  body 
on  earth ; and  the  figure  of  the  deceased  in 
the  Osirian  judgment  is  always  as  a living 
person,  and  not  a mummy.  It  is  only  in  the 
age  of  greatest  confusion  and  mixture,  under 
the  Ptolemies  and  Emperors,  that  the  mummy 
is  supported  by  Anubis  into  the  presence  of 
Osiris.  The  ka  and  ba  theory  might  involve 
the  preservation  of  the  mummy  ; and  in  the 
comparatively  late  age  of  the  New  Kingdom 
the  ba  flies  down  the  tomb-pit  to  the  mummy, 
and  the  ba  lingers  longingly  on  the  breast 
of  the  mummy  pleading  to  return  to  its 
place.  But  the  earlier  evidence  may  make 
us  doubt  whether  mummification  were  an 
original  part  of  the  ka  and  ba  theory.  Why, 
for  example,  should  the  ka  require  sustenance 
if  the  mummified  body  remains  unaltered 
and  imperishable  ? And  at  the  beginning 


52 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


of  the  IVth  Dynasty  mummification  was  at 
a point  of  elaborate  resemblance  to  the  living 
body,  by  modelling  in  resin,  a system  which 
rapidly  deteriorated  a few  generations  later  ; 
such  a history  indicates  that  it  was  a some- 
what recent  introduction,  whereas  the  ka  and 
ba  theory  is  probably  of  the  earliest  race  and 
age,  before  the  Elysian  or  Solar  theories. 
It  seems,  then,  probable  that  the  mummi- 
fying may  belong  to  another  theory — that 
of  revivification,  with  which  it  is  always 
associated  by  writers  ; whereas  there  is 
neither  place  nor  purpose  in  any  bodily  re- 
vivification in  the  ka  theory  or  the  Elysian 
or  Solar  theories.  There  are  then  certainly 
three,  and  perhaps  four,  views  about  the 
soul  which  have  no  original  unity,  but  rather 
show  a complete  discordance,  apparently  due 
to  different  origins  and  races. 

19.  Now,  as  there  are  diversities  in  the 
beliefs  about  the  soul,  so  there  are  like  di- 
versities in  the  beliefs  about  the  divinities. 
It  is  familiar  how  confused  the  mythology 
is  owing  to  parallel  gods — alike,  yet  distinct ; 
and  fused  gods — unalike,  yet  combined  ; how 
a god  would  be  in  power  at  one  time  and 
rejected  at  another.  All  this  change  is 
vaguely  put  down  to  local  influences,  which 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


S3 


is  only  the  first  step  in  tracing  the  causation. 
Differences  between  neighbouring  places  in 
their  fundamental  beliefs  are  not  mere 
senseless  vagaries  ; they  imply  a difference 
between  the  people — that  is,  a difference  in 
race.  According  to  most  Egyptologists  the 
variety  of  gods  was  determined  by  the 
different  beliefs  of  every  petty  capital  of 
every  province  of  Egypt.  Yet  these  authori- 
ties avoid  the  conclusion  that  these  gods 
belong  to  different  ancestries.  Let  us  just 
see  what  this  position  requires  of  us.  If  the 
gods  arise  without  difference  of  ancestry  in 
their  worshippers— and  it  is  admitted  that 
all  the  principal  gods  are  far  prehistoric — 
then  we  have  the  view  that  there  existed  in 
Egypt  a unified  mass  of  population,  which 
had  mingled  without  having  any  previous 
mythologies ; and  subsequently  in  Egypt 
they  evolved  different  gods  at  many  different 
centres.  This  is  what  is  generally  tacitly 
assumed,  even  by  Maspero,  who  sees  the 
perspective  of  the  history  of  mythology  far 
more  than  any  other  authority.  But  such 
a view  requires  us  to  believe  that  for  long 
ages,  while  these  gods  were  being  evolved 
and  brought  into  contact  in  Egypt,  not  a 
single  serious  immigration  of  foreign  races 


54 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


had  taken  place.  In  short,  that  though  the 
known  history  of  Egypt  shows  a great  influx 
of  neighbouring  people  every  few  centuries, 
we  are  asked  to  suppose  that  such  mixtures 
were  quite  insignificant  in  all  the  far  longer 
prehistoric  ages,  while  the  gods  were  in 
course  of  evolution.  Such  a view,  thus 
reduced  to  historic  parallelism,  is  an  insult 
to  our  sense  of  probability. 

20.  That  great  mixtures  of  race  had  taken 
place  in  the  prehistoric  ages,  probably  oftener 
than  once  in  a thousand  years,  is  practically 
certain,  when  we  view  the  known  history. 
And  as  such  mixtures  always  produce  local 
diversity,  we  should  expect  to  see  differences 
and  incongruities  between  the  beliefs  of  all 
the  principal,  and  even  the  minor,  centres  of 
population.  In  one  town  the  A tribe  would 
be  strongest ; in  the  next  the  B tribe  still 
remained  in  power ; on  the  opposite  side  the 
C tribe  had  later  thrust  themselves  in.  Such 
is  the  view  which  is  forced  upon  us  by  the 
historic  probabilities  of  the  country.  Elence, 
local  differences  are  only  another  name  for 
tribal  differences  and  diversities  of  origin. 

It  may  be  said  that  we  do  not  see  such 
new  gods  being  introduced  by  the  migrations 
during  historic  times,  and  hence  we  should 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


55 


not  expect  these  changes  to  result  from  the 
prehistoric  migrations.  This  is  a very  partial 
view.  In  the  first  place  new  gods  were  need- 
less, because  almost  every  race  that  could 
burst  into  Egypt  had  already  come  in  and 
planted  their  gods,  hence  reconquests  by  the 
same  race  a second  time  merely  brought 
forward  their  already-present  god.  To  take 
an  acknowledged  instance,  the  Libyan  con- 
quest by  the  XXI  Ind  and  XXVIth  Dynasties 
forced  Neith,  the  Libyan  goddess,  into  pro- 
minence, after  she  had  almost  disappeared  in 
Egypt.  When  a really  fresh  race  came  in 
their  gods  then  appear  also  as  new  gods 
in  Egypt,  such  as  the  Syrian  gods  and  the 
Greek  gods.  Then,  moreover,  when  once 
the  religion  had  become  fixed  by  written 
formulae  and  types  of  worship  on  monu- 
ments, the  beliefs  already  figured  on  the 
spot  held  their  ground  against  the  unwritten 
faith  of  the  moving  immigrants. 

While,  therefore,  fully  recognizing  that  the 
diversities  of  belief  were  local,  and  that  the 
prominence  of  a deity  was  largely  due  to  the 
political  importance  of  his  centre  of  worship, 
yet  we  must  logically  see  behind  these  local 
differences  the  racial  and  tribal  differences 
by  which  they  were  caused  ; and  behind  the 


56 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


political  power  of  a place  we  must  perceive 
the  political  power  of  the  race  who  dwelt 
there,  and  whose  beliefs  were  spread  around 
by  their  political  predominance.  Amen-wor- 
ship  spread  from  Thebes,  or  Neit-worship 
from  Sais,  not  merely  because  those  places 
were  the  seat  of  power,  but  because  the 
people  of  those  places  who  worshipped  Amen 
and  Neit  extended  their  power  and  dwelt  as 
governors  and  officials  in  the  rest  of  the 
country.  It  is  race  and  not  place  that  is 
the  real  cause  of  change. 

21.  One  of  the  best  known  incongruities 
is  the  position  of  Set.  In  the  earliest  times 
Set  and  Horus  appear  as  co-equal  or  twin- 
gods  (M.E.E.,  329)  closely  associated.  In 
the  VIII th  Chapter  of  the  Book  of  the 
Dead  the  deceased,  who  is  usually  identified 
with  Osiris,  states  that  he  is  identical  with 
Set : while,  evidently  after  the  antagonistic 
view  of  Set  and  Horus  had  come  in,  a 
sentence  was  added  deprecating  the  wrath 
of  Horus.  Now  the  possibility  of  such  a 
view  of  Set  is  explained  by  the  earliest 
history  of  Horus.  Maspero  states  that  Isis 
was  originally  the  Virgin-mother,  dwelling 
alone  as  a separate  sole  goddess  at  Buto, 
from  whom  Horus  was  self  - produced 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


57 


(M.H.A.,  131).  The  union  of  Osiris  to 
Isis,  and  his  adoption  of  Horus,  was  a 
later  modification.  Hence  there  was  no 
incongruity  in  the  earliest  view  of  Horus 
and  Set  being  honoured  side  by  side.  But 
when  Horus  became  the  step-son  of  Osiris, 
later  the  full  son  of  Osiris  himself,  he  was 
bound  to  be  antagonistic  to  Set.  That  Set 
belongs  to  the  Libyans  or  Westerns  is  pro- 
bable, because  he  is  considered  to  have  red 
hair  and  a white  skin  ; in  fact,  the  Tahennu, 
or  clear-race  complexion.  And  it  is  probable 
that  the  Osiris- Isis  group  is  also  of  Libyan 
origin,  as  we  shall  see  later  on. 

Hence  we  may  picture  to  ourselves  the 
gods  Isis,  Osiris,  and  Set,  as  the  three  divini- 
ties of  different  tribes  of  Libyans.  So  long 
as  the  Isis  worshippers  and  Set  worshippers 
were  in  fraternity  and  tribal  union,  Horus 
and  Set  were  coequal  gods.  But  when  the 
Osiris  worshippers,  with  whom  the  Setites 
were  at  feud,  united  with  the  Isiac  tribe,  and 
Osiris  was  married  to  Isis,  it  became  the 
duty  of  Horus  to  fight  Set.  Accordingly 
we  see  the  war  of  Horus  and  Set  throughout 
Egypt,  and  garrisons  of  the  followers  of 
Horus  were  established  by  the  side  of  the 
principal  centres  of  Set  worship  to  keep 


58 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


down  the  Setite  tribe.  (See  Masp.,  Etudes 
ii.  324.)  This  tribal  view  of  the  religious 
discordances  and  changes  seems  to  be  the 
only  rational  cause  that  can  be  assigned. 
That  tribal  wars  existed  no  one  would 
venture  to  dispute,  and  that  religious  changes 
would  ensue  from  political  changes  we  see 
exemplified  all  through  the  history  of  Egypt. 
The  cause  existed  for  such  divergences,  and 
it  was  capable  of  producing  these  diver- 
gences : while  no  other  reasonable  cause  can 
be  assigned,  and  the  gods  are  expressly 
represented  as  fighting  and  vanquishing  each 
other’s  followers.  We  need  hardly  say  that 
the  Syrian  god  Sutekh,  which  comes  in 
about  the  XIXth  Dynasty,  has  no  connection 
with  the  primitive  Egyptian  god  Set. 

22.  Another  puzzling  and  discordant 
element  in  the  mythology  is  the  goddess 
Hathor.  She  is  the  most  ubiquitous  deity 
of  all.  Yet  she  is  seldom  worshipped  alone 
and  unmodified,  and  she  is  usually  identified 
with  some  other  goddess  or  with  a female 
form  of  some  god.  Sekhet,  Neit,  Iusaas,  Best, 
Uazit,  Mut,  Hekt,  and  Aset  are  all  identi- 
fied with  her  at  different  places,  and  she 
appears  as  female  forms  of  Sopd,  Behudt, 
Anpu,  and  Tanen.  She  has  no  permanent 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


59 


characteristics,  no  special  attributes.  The 
uncouth  human  face  with  cow’s  ears  and 
modified  cow’s  horns  is  the  only  typical  form 
of  the  goddess,  and  the  cow  and  the  sistrum 
are  her  only  emblems  ; but  these  distinctions 
are  not  constant.  Worshipped  in  every 
nome  of  Upper  and  Lower  Egypt,  she  was 
yet  one  of  the  most  evasive  deities,  and  most 
easily  modified  and  combined. 

Let  us  reflect  on  what  this  indicates.  That 
the  worship  was  thus  general,  equally  diffused 
over  the  country,  points  to  the  country  having 
been  under  a uniform  condition  of  subjection 
to  her  worshippers.  While  the  fact  that  at 
no  centre  is  she  solely  worshipped,  and  at 
very  few  places  even  prominently,  points  to 
other  deities  having  been  already  in  posses- 
sion of  the  country  when  her  devotees  spread 
her  adoration.  Where  then  are  we  to  look 
for  her  native  land  ? It  has  been  shown  that 
Hathor  was  lady  of  Punt,  and  was  thence 
introduced  into  Egypt.  And  we  may  see 
further  confirmation  of  this.  The  only  places 
outside  of  Egypt  with  which  she  is  connected 
are  Punt,  Mafekt  (Sinai) — where  the  Punites 
are  very  likely  to  have  settled  on  the  Red 
Sea— and  Kapna.  This  last  is  usually 
rendered  as  equal  to  the  Gubla  or  Byblos, 


6o 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


but  another  Kapna  was  in  the  land  of  Punt, 
and  in  the  only  place  where  Hathor  is  lady 
of  Kapna  she  is  also  lady  of  Wawat  on  the 
Upper  Nile.  (Rec.  II.  120.)  Hence  it  is 
more  likely  that  the  Kapna  of  Hathor  is  a 
district  of  Punt.  Further,  of  Isis,  who  is 
identified  at  Dendera  with  Hathor,  it  is  said, 
“ Isis  was  born  in  the  Iseum  of  Dendera  of 
Apt,  the  great  one  of  the  temple  of  Apt, 
under  the  form  of  a woman  black  and  red.” 
(M.  Dend.  text  30.)  This  points  to  a southern 
origin.  The  Punites  are  coloured  dark  red, 
and  the  neighbouring  peoples  black,  while 
the  Asiatics  are  yellow,  and  the  Libyans  fair. 
When  we  come  to  look  to  the  nature  of  the 
goddess  we  see  further  connection.  That 
Min  was  a Punite  god  is  most  likely,  as  his 
position  at  Ivoptos  on  the  Red  Sea  road 
indicates,  as  well  as  his  three  colossal  statues 
there,  apparently  carved  by  a Red  Sea  people 
in  prehistoric  time.  And  Min  was  the  great 
father-^od.  Hathor  is  the  co-relative  mother- 
god,  she  in  whom  dwells  the  son  Hor.  Her 
character  as  the  universal  mother  is  well 
recognized,  and  is  plainly  on  a par  with  the 
idea  of  Min  as  the  great  father.  Thus  the 
two  eods  whom  we  are  led  to  connect  with 
the  Punite  race  by  their  position,  are  similar 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


6 1 


in  nature  and  point  to  a worship  of  reproduc- 
tion apparently  belonging  to  that  people. 
Another  connection  is  seen  in  the  position  of 
Hathor  in  the  country.  The  only  supreme 
centre  for  her  was  at  Dendera,  which  is 
opposite  to  Koptos,  the  seat  of  Min,  and 
on  the  line  of  any  invaders  from  the  Red 
Sea  into  the  Nile  valley. 

That  Hathor  was  brought  in  by  a people 
after  the  establishment  of  the  other  deities 
we  have  already  observed.  And  this  exactly 
agrees  to  her  belonging  to  the  Punite  race 
which  founded  the  dynastic  history.  Their 
great  female  divinity  they  identified  with 
every  other  goddess  that  they  met  through- 
out Egypt,  and  established  her  worship  also 
as  a local  Hathor  in  every  nome,  calling  her 
the  “princess  of  the  gods.”  The  whole 
phenomena  of  the  diffusion  of  her  worship 
are  thus  accounted  for  by  the  historical 
connection  in  which  her  origin  leads  us  to 
place  her.  Therefore,  by  her  being  stated 
to  come  from  Punt,  by  the  foreign  places  to 
which  she  is  connected,  by  her  colour,  by 
her  being  complementary  to  Min  the  other 
Punite  god,  by  the  place  of  her  main 
sanctuary,  and  by  the  peculiar  diffusion  of 
her  worship,  we  are  led  to  one  conclusion 


62 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


throughout — that  Hathor  was  the  Punite 
goddess  introduced  at  the  beginning  of  the 
dynastic  history. 

23.  Another  prominent  case  of  discordance 
is  in  the  worship  of  the  crocodile  god  Sebek. 
This  was  most  prevalent  in  the  Fayum, 
“the  lake  of  the  crocodile”;  and  the  marshy, 
shallow  margins  of  the  wide  lake  as  it  then 
was  must  have  been  very  favourable  to 
such  amphibia.  Up  the  Nile  other  places 
were  also  devoted  to  crocodile  worship,  such 
as  Silsileh,  Ombos,  and  Nubt,  while  at 
neighbouring  towns  the  animal  was  detested 
and  attacked,  as  at  Dendera,  Apollinopolis, 
and  Heracleopolis. 

Here  such  discordant  beliefs  could  not 
be  supposed  to  spring  up  side  by  side 
amongst  a homogeneous  people  living 
together ; on  the  contrary,  they  show  a 
difference  of  thought  and  of  belief  which 
must  have  been  developed  at  different  places 
and  under  different  conditions.  Sebek  was 
a creative  god  ; being  the  largest  and  most 
intelligent  animal  of  the  water,  the  crocodile 
was  the  emblem  of  the  ruler  of  the  primordial 
ocean.  And  in  later  times  Osiris  was 
identified  with  the  crocodile,  and  appears 
as  the  reptile  with  a human  head  in  the 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION 


63 


Fayum.  As  it  is  impossible  for  the  crocodile 
worship  to  have  originated  outside  of  Egypt, 
we  may  look  on  it  as  one  of  the  oldest 
worships  in  the  country,  as  the  people  who 
adopted  such  a belief  cannot  have  had  any 
other  very  fixed  or  developed  worship 
already  adopted.  That  it  originated  in  the 
Fayum  is  possible  from  its  permanence 
there,  from  that  being  a great  haunt  of 
crocodiles  in  early  times,  and  from  a 
western  goddess,  Neith,  being  figured  as 
suckling  two  crocodiles.  The  seats  of 
Sebek-worship  elsewhere  in  Egypt  might, 
if  so,  point  to  migrations  of  the  tribe  who 
occupied  the  Fayum  in  the  earliest  times. 

We  have  now  seen  enough  of  these 
examples  of  discordant  beliefs  to  credit  the 
view  that  they  are  an  evidence  of  the  differ- 
ences of  race,  and  of  the  various  elements 
of  the  religion  having  been  introduced  by 
different  tribes  from  various  quarters,  who 
had  successively  forced  their  way  into 

Egypt- 

2 4.  Before  going  further  it  will  be  well 
to  note  some  of  the  instances  of  changes 
in  the  religion,  and  of  one  belief  altering 
or  superseding  another,  which  are  already 
observed  and  acknowledged  by  the  best 


64 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


students.  The  following  illustrations  are 
all  taken  from  the  studies  published  by 
Maspero,  who  well  recognizes  that  “a 
religion  always  has  a history,  at  whatever 
time  after  its  origin  we  may  view  it,”  and 
that  a study  of  isolated  gods  must  always 
precede  the  treatment  of  their  combined 
forms. 

Of  the  creative  gods  there  are  three — 
Khnum,  Sebek,  and  Ptah — which  do  not 
correspond  to  the  same  view  of  creation, 
and  reigned  over  different  worshippers,  at 
least  at  first.  They  were  completely 
strangers,  and  sometimes  enemies,  with  no 
more  connection  than  had  the  princes  of 
the  very  different  districts  of  Egypt  to 
which  they  belonged.  And  even  Ptah  had 
a long  history,  for  Tatnen  is  the  oldest 
form  of  Ptah  ; or  rather  as  we  should  say, 
a previous  god  of  Memphis,  who  was 
absorbed  in  the  later  god  Ptah,  and  whose 
memory  was  kept  up  by  the  compound 
god  Ptah-Tatnen.  Ptah  was  alone  at  first, 
and  subsequently  Sekhet  was  brought  in 
to  the  Memphite  worship  as  the  wife  of 
Ptah,  although  her  previous  position  was 
with  Atmu  of  Heliopolis.  Imhotep  was 
at  first  an  epithet  of  Ptah,  before  being 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION  65 

made  into  a separate  god  as  the  son  of 
Ptah. 

Turning  to  the  Heliopolitan  gods  the 
changes  and  growth  are  frequent.  Shu, 
who  was  at  first  space  or  air,  was  made 
into  a son  of  Atmu  ; then  later  he  became 
identified  with  Atmu.  In  the  later  growth 
of  the  Ra  worship  some  kept  to  only  a 
human  figure  of  Ra,  and  a hawk-headed 
Horakhti ; others  brought  in  new  names 
for  the  new  conceptions — Atmu  for  the  past 
sun,  Khepra  for  the  present  sun,  &c. 
Then  these  again  became  compounded, 
as  Atmu-Harakhti-Khepra. 

At  Thebes  alterations  are  also  seen. 
The  whole  Thebaid  was  originally  subject 
to  Mentu ; Amen  then  came  forward,  and 
Mentu  was  reduced  to  being  a son  of  Amen. 

The  gods  of  the  dead  varied  as  much  as 
any.  Sokar  at  Memphis  and  Mertseger 
at  Thebes  were  the  earliest.  The  kingdom 
of  Sokar  in  the  west  was  adopted  into  the 
Book  of  Duat ; as  also  was  the  kingdom 
of  Osiris  in  the  north,  and  in  the  stars. 
And  Sokar  became  identified  with  Osiris 
of  the  Delta,  they  both  being  gods  of  the 
dead.  Then  Osiris  became  also  mingled 
with  Khentamenti  of  Abydos,  another  god 

E 


66 


THE  DISCORDANCES  OF 


of  the  dead.  And  Osiris  was  also  married 
to  Isis,  and  established  the  popular  Osirian 
cycle.  After  that  came  the  combination 
of  the  Osiride  and  Sokar  myths  in  the 
various  ritual  books  of  the  future  life,  where 
the  increasing-  solarization  can  be  traced  as 
late  as  the  XXth  Dynasty.  As  Maspero 
says,  “ The  increasingly  intimate  connection 
of  Osiris  and  Ra,  gradually  mixed  both 
myths  and  dogmas  which  had  been  entirely 
separate  at  first.  The  friends  and  enemies 
of  each  became  the  friends  and  enemies 
of  the  other,  and  lost  their  native  character 
in  forming  combined  personages,  in  whom 
the  most  contradictory  elements  were 
mixed,  often  without  succeeding  in  uniting 
them.” 

Later  than  all  these  changes,  and  attempted 
unification  of  gods,  whose  nature  or  whose 
territories  overlapped,  came  the  great  sorting 
movement  of  forming  triads  and  enneads  in 
highly  artificial  orders  and  combinations, 
which  in  their  turn  led  up  to  the  idea  of 
the  unity  of  all  the  gods,  that  is  so  promi- 
nent in  the  later  pantheistic  views.  These 
latest  ideas  put  forward  in  the  elaborate 
and  lengthy  inscriptions  of  Ptolemaic  times 
are  what  have  led  many  scholars  to  lose  sight 


EGYPTIAN  RELIGION  67 

of  the  several  earlier  stages  which  we  have 
here  been  noticing. 

We  have  now  seen  how  important  the 
discordances  and  alterations  of  the  Egyp- 
tian religion  are  for  throwing  some  light  on 
the  history  of  its  many  modifications — a 
history  which  passed  away  before  our 
earliest  records,  and  which  can  only  be 
recovered  by  the  comparison  of  different 
and  contradictory  views.  In  these  we 
have  embalmed  for  study  the  only  frag- 
ments of  the  prehistoric  age  that  we  can 
work  on  ; and  it  is  this  which  gives  such 
study  a value  far  beyond  that  belonging  to 
the  religion  alone.  We  gain  a glimpse  of 
the  perspective  of  the  growth  of  mind. 


LECTURE  IV. 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE  EGYPTIAN 
MYTHOLOGY 

25.  To  anyone  attempting  to  look  at 
first  at  the  mythology  of  Egypt,  the  great 
number  of  gods  and  their  often  complex 
and  ill-defined  attributes,  render  the  view 
most  perplexing  and  repulsive.  It  appears 
almost  impossible  to  master  the  multitude 
of  details,  and  as  if  they  had  little  reality 
and  significance  when  at  last  understood. 
We  have  in  the  previous  sections  considered 
how  such  a complex  subject  should  be 
approached,  and  what  the  laws  are  of  a 
mixture  of  religions  ; we  have  then  reviewed 
the  popular  religion  as  being  the  simplest, 
and  showing  the  point  of  view  of  the  Egyp- 
tian mind  ; then  we  have  noted  the  discor- 
dances, the  contradictions  and  duplications, 
and  the  most  obvious  changes  in  mythology, 
as  evidence  of  its  complex  origin.  Lastly 

68 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


69 


we  now  turn  to  making  a brief  analysis  of 
the  whole  mass  of  supernatural  existences 
which  were  recognized  in  Egypt,  so  as  to 
gain  a grasp  of  the  whole  material,  and  to 
be  able  to  realize  its  extent  and  its  nature. 
All  of  this  study  may  be  regarded  as 
prolegomena  to  the  treatment  of  the 
mythology  in  detail ; but  without  such  a 
consideration  of  principles,  and  system  of 
classification,  we  should  grope  helplessly  in 
the  dark,  and  feel  that  our  view  was  but 
partial  and  imperfect.  We  may  in  such  a 
general  review  as  this  omit  much  that  is 
important  and  overlook  many  beliefs  which 
were  prominent  and  familiar  ; but  at  least  we 
shall  see  the  plan  of  the  whole  field  and 
realize  its  extent  and  the  relation  of  its 
parts.  It  will  then  remain  to  explore  each 
myth  and  trace  each  deity  separately,  with 
the  general  clue  in  hand  of  its  position  and 
relation  to  other  beliefs  around  it. 

For  this  general  analysis  we  may  take 
Lanzone’s  Mythology  as  a standard  list.  No 
doubt  many  obscure  and  derivative  spirits 
may  yet  be  brought  to  light ; but  they  will 
only  swell  the  least  important  section  of  the 
mythology.  The  total  number  of  gods, 
spirits,  and  sacred  beings  or  animals  in  this 


70 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


record  is  about  438.  These  may  be  classi- 
fied in  the  following  groups  : — 


Hades,  spirits  and  genii  . . 153 

serpents  . . . -35 

188 

Animals,  serpents  ....  7 

mammalia,  &c.  . .24 

31 

Monsters  .....  7 

Local  and  minor  gods  ...  71 

Abstractions  .....  13 

Elemental  .....  4 

Feminine  forms  and  sons  of  gods, 

derived  .....  21 

Animal  and  human  compound  gods  14 

Gods  of  dead  ....  2 

Human  gods  ....  1 1 

Cosmic  gods  ....  it 

Human  gods  of  principles  . . 6 

varieties  of  Hathor  . . 51 

Foreign  gods  ....  8 


438 

26.  The  first  of  these  groups  is  known 
by  the  Book  of  the  Dead , and  other  works 
that  deal  with  the  future  state,  such  as  the 
Book  of  Knowing  Duat , with  its  twelve 
hours  of  the  solar  passage ; the  Book  of 
Gates  or  Book  of  Hades , with  its  twelve 
names  fenced  off  by  separate  portals  ; the 
Book  of  the  opening  of  the  Mouth , and  other 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


71 


ritual  works.  These  are  mostly  of  a com- 
paratively late  date,  the  Book  of  the  Dead 
being  probably  the  oldest ; but  in  all  of 
them  the  various  stages  of  the  religion  are 
mixed  and  combined  as  best  they  might 
be.  The  genii  that  are  met  with  in  these 
works  are  therefore  of  all  ages.  Some  like 
the  great  serpent  Apap,  and  the  great  cat  of 
the  Persea  tree,  may  belong  to  the  earliest 
beliefs  ; others  were  added  as  the  need  of 
explanation  grew,  and  many  were  probably 
invented  for  the  sake  of  uniformity,  when 
the  consciousness  of  constructing  a system- 
atic guide-book  to  the  unseen  was  realized 
by  the  Egyptian  scribes  and  dogma-makers. 
Doubtless  many  of  the  genii  and  of  the 
serpents  are  duplications  and  subdivisions  of 
the  same  idea. 

27.  Of  sacred  animals  we  find  thirty-one,  of 
which  seven  are  serpents.  Four  views  of 
this  animal  worship  are  now  held.  Some 
regard  the  animals  as  having  been  first 
worshipped  for  their  powers  and  unexplained 
actions,  simply  as  fellow -beings  with  man. 
Another  view  is  that  they  were  worshipped 
as  exemplifying  certain  characteristics  of 
power,  fertility,  cunning,  &c.  A third  view 
is  that  they  were  only  sacred  to  the  gods, 


72 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


and  that  they  were  not  directly  worshipped, 
except  as  a corruption  in  late  times.  A 
fourth  view  is  that  they  were  worshipped 
because  of  their  utility.  This  last  view  is 
certainly  not  solid,  as  many  of  the  animals 
worshipped  had  no  utility  to  man  in  any  way. 
The  view  that  they  were  only  emblems  of 
gods,  and  that  the  worship  of  the  gods 
preceded  the  animal  worship  is  not  satis- 
factory. We  see  that  the  tree  was  sacred 
before  it  was  connected  with  a goddess, 
because  many  different  goddesses  are  united 
to  tree  worship.  In  the  same  way  different 
gods  are  united  to  the  worship  of  the  same 
animals  ; the  ram  is  adored  for  Khnum,  for 
Amen,  for  Osiris,  or  for  Neit,  according  to 
the  locality  ; the  bull  is  connected  with  Ra, 
with  Osiris,  with  Set,  or  with  Ptah,  and  four 
sacred  bulls  are  specified.  Here  the  pre- 
sumption certainly  is  that  the  trees  and 
animals  were  sacred  already,  before  they 
were  attached  to  the  worship  of  one  god 
or  other.  And,  further,  we  see  animals 
worshipped,  and  tablets  carved  to  their 
honour,  as  animals  alone,  without  any  con- 
nection with  a god,  such  as  the  wagtail  and 
the  cat ; and  also  adored  in  preference  to  the 
god,  as  the  goose  of  Amen,  the  cat  of  Neit, 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


73 


and  the  rams  of  Amen.  The  view,  there- 
fore, that  the  animals  were  worshipped 
independently  of  the  gods,  and  united  to  the 
divine  worship  subsequently,  seems  the  more 
reasonable.  Whether  the  abstraction  of 
characteristics  preceded  animal  worship,  we 
cannot  say  ; probably  unconsciously  it  did  so, 
and  they  were  reverenced  for  their  being  the 
greatest  exemplification  of  various  qualities. 
Mysterious  intelligence  was  also  attributed 
to  their  actions,  and  the  baboon,  the  ibis,  the 
cat,  or  the  cobra,  were  each  supposed  to 
reason  like  a man.  Remembering  the  adora- 
tion paid  both  to  trees  and  to  serpents  at 
present  in  Africa,  it  seems  not  improbable 
that  we  may  see  the  negro  element  in  this 
plant  and  animal  worship. 

Beside  animals,  various  monsters  were 
invented  and  worshipped ; seven  such  are 
specified. 

28.  Then  there  comes  the  great  mass  of 
local  and  minor  deities,  who  are  only  known 
in  a few  instances,  and  who  may  have  held 
in  Egypt  much  the  same  place  that  saints  do 
in  Christianity  or  in  Islam.  There  are 
several  abstractions,  which  were  none  of 
importance  ; such  as  the  god  of  Fishers,  of 
Cultivation,  of  Corn,  of  Wine,  of  Earth,  of 


74 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


Fire,  of  Foreigners,  of  Writing,  of  Hearing, 
of  Speech,  of  Taste,  and  of  Destiny.  Most 
of  these  are  probably  of  late  invention,  and 
have  no  part  in  the  early  systems.  There 
are  also  elemental  gods,  and  those  of  Her- 
mopolis,  the  eight  associated  with  Tahuti. 
Purely  theoretical  gods  were  invented  to 
complete  the  triads,  and  twenty-one  are 
feminine  forms  of  a male  god,  or  sons  who 
are  otherwise  of  no  importance. 

29.  We  have  now  passed  over  more  than 
three-quarters  of  the  spiritual  beings  : about 
one  hundred  remain.  Of  these  half  are 
local  forms  of  Hathor,  and  eight  are  foreign, 
leaving  forty-three  as  the  number  of  impor- 
tant divinities,  the  great  gods  as  we  may  call 
them.  These  can  be  divided  into  four  great 
groups  : the  partly-animal  gods,  the  essen- 
tially human  gods  (Osirian  group),  the 
cosmogonic  gods  (Ra  group),  and  the  gods 
of  human  principles.  The  relative  order  of 
the  introduction  of  these  groups  is  as  here 
arranged,  so  far  as  we  can  glean  it  from  their 
relations  to  each  other.  As  we  have  already 
pointed  out,  the  worship  of  animals  probably 
preceded  that  of  abstract  deities,  and  hence 
the  half-animal  gods  are  probably  older  than 
the  others.  Then  Maspero  has  shown  how 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


75 


the  Osirian  doctrine  was  modified  to  agree  to 
the  solar  Ra  ; and  that  the  heaven  created  by 
Horus,  and  sustained  by  his  four  sons,  the 
pillars,  is  older  than  the  Heliopolitan  cos- 
mogony of  Ra.  The  Osirian  group  of 
human  gods  belongs,  then,  to  an  older  order 
of  things  than  the  cosmogonic  gods.  Lastly, 
the  fact  that  Ptah,  one  of  the  gods  of  prin- 
ciples, had  to  borrow  a partner,  Sekhct,  who 
was  originally  the  mate  of  Atmu,  and  who 
had  a son,  Nefertum,  points  to  his  being 
later  than  the  Ra  group.  And  the  diffusion 
of  Hathor  worship  appears  to  belong  to  the 
latest  of  the  prehistoric  layers. 

Now,  without  entering  on  the  details  at 
present,  it  is  at  least  allowable  to  point 
out  that  four  successive  races  in  Egypt 
have  been  deduced  from  the  examination 
of  the  monuments,  without  looking  to  any 
relation  to  the  religion  : the  Negro,  the 
Libyan,  the  Mesopotamian,  the  Punite.  And 
these  four  races  have  direct  links  to  the  four 
successive  classes  of  gods  which  we  have 
just  specified.  For  the  present  this  is  an 
hypothesis ; some  of  these  gods  can  be 
identified  with  those  of  certain  of  the  races 
without  much  question,  how  far  they  all  can 
remains  yet  to  be  studied. 


76 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


30.  The  first  group,  the  partly  animal 
gods,  which  we  should  expect  to  be  linked 
more  or  less  with  the  negro  element,  are 
fourteen  in  number.  Selk,  the  scorpion  ; 
Uazit  and  Nekhebt,  the  serpents  of  north  and 
south  ; Hekt,  the  frog  of  birth ; Horakhti, 
the  hawk;  Mentu,  the  hawk;  Tahuti,  the 
ibis;  Sebek,  the  crocodile;  Taurt,  the  hippo- 
potamus ; Hapi,  the  bull ; Khnum,  the  ram  ; 
Un-nefer,  the  hare;  Anpu  or  Apuat,  the 
jackal ; Sekhet  or  Bast,  the  lion.  Each 
of  these  may  appear  in  human  form,  with 
the  head  or  some  attribute  of  the  animal,  or 
at  least  standing  and  acting'  as  a human 
being.  In  this  they  are  distinct  from  the 
sacred  animals.  Apparently  of  this  same 
stratum  are  the  gods  of  the  dead,  Mert- 
seger,  the  serpent  of  Thebes,  and  Seker  of 
Sakkara,  whose  kingdom  of  the  dead  is 
older  than  that  of  Osiris,  and  whose  form 
apart  from  other  gods  we  do  not  know, 
unless  it  be  that  of  the  mummied  hawk 
which  broods  over  his  sacred  bark  and 
shrine.  With  this  stratum  we  may  probably 
also  link  the  ka  and  ba ; their  purely  earthly 
existence  and  their  dependence  on  the  tree- 
spirit  pointing  to  their  early  position. 

31.  The  second  group  is  distinguished  by 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


77 


being  linked  together  in  the  mythology,  and 
being  in  almost  every  case  represented  under 
purely  human  forms.  Isis  and  her  son  Horus 
worshipped  at  Buto,  and  Osiris,  afterwards 
united  to  her,  are  the  principal  and  typical  gods 
of  this  group.  Set — the  only  animal-headed 
god  of  the  group — is  closely  related  to  the 
great  triad,  first  as  the  fellow-god  of  Horus, 
and  later  as  the  enemy  of  Osiris  and  Horus. 
The  outline  of  the  history  of  this  change 
we  have  already  noticed,  and  its  significance 
as  embodying  a piece  of  tribal  history. 
There  is  also  the  great  Horus,  or  elder 
Horus,  who  appears  to  represent  the  heaven, 
the  her,  or  upper  region,  and  whose  two  eyes 
are  the  sun  and  moon.  Very  possibly  he 
was  one  with  the  younger  Horus  originally, 
who  became  posed  as  a son  of  Isis  in  con- 
sequence of  some  tribal  union  requiring  a 
fusion  of  the  gods.  Nebhat  is  the  remaining 
divinity  of  this  family,  whom  some  regard 
as  a mere  interpolation  to  provide  a wife 
to  Set. 

Another  family  of  this  same  character  is 
that  of  the  Thebaid.  Amen  is  a human 
god,  and  Mut  and  Khonsu  are  purely  human 
in  their  figures.  Anher  is  another  god  of 
the  heaven,  probably  belonging  to  a different 


78 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


tribe  from  the  Horus  worshippers.  Net  or 
Neith,  the  great  goddess  of  Sais,  was  like- 
wise entirely  human.  All  of  these  gods 
are  figured  as  men  and  women,  they  have 
essentially  human  passions  and  action,  and 
there  is  nothing  mystic  about  them.  That 
they  form  a different  class  to  the  first  is  seen 
by  their  duplication  : worshippers  of  Tahuti 
had  no  need  to  invent  a fresh  god  of  the  moon 
and  of  time,  in  Khonsu  ; those  who  went  to 
Sokar  had  no  need  to  invent  Osiris  as  a £od 
of  the  dead.  The  links  of  this  class  are  all 
to  the  western  races.  Osiris  was  identified 
with  the  worship  of  the  Dad  emblem,  lord 
of  Daddu  ; and  this  appears  connected  with 
the  south  Libyan  god  Dadun.  The  Diony- 
siac  character  of  Osiris  is  very  strong,  and 
Dionysos  was  reared  in  Libya.  Osiris 
appears  to  be  the  god  of  vegetation,  the 
corn  god,  which  was  a main  deity  of  the 
white  races.  The  oracular  character  of 
Amen  and  Khonsu  is  a western  idea,  and 
Amen  was  expressly  the  god  of  the  great 
Oasis,  and  was  worshipped  in  Laconia,  Elis, 
and  Boeotia.  Neit  has  always  been  recog- 
nized as  a Libyan  goddess  ; and  the  very 
close  connection  of  her  nature  (as  the 
goddess  of  the  lance  or  arrow,  and  also  of 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


79 


weaving)  links  her  with  Athena,  who  came 
from  Libya.  The  Elysian  theory  of  the  soul 
is  that  belonging  to  this  second  group. 

32.  The  next  main  group  is  that  of  the 
cosmic  gods,  of  whom  Ra  is  the  chief. 
Beside  the  main  figure  of  Ra  there  are  the 
parallel  gods  Atmu,  the  sun  before  the 
world,  ever-existing ; Ivhepra,  the  present 
sun ; and  Harakhti,  the  rising  sun.  Of 
these  Ra  was  the  direct  primitive  god,  and 
Harakhti  a popular  variant  combined  with 
the  previous  Horus  worship;  while  Atmu 
and  Khepra  are  more  theological  gods, 
never  worshipped  by  the  people.  Nefer- 
atmu  was  a son  of  Atmu,  who  was  hardly 
more  than  of  local  importance.  Nut  and 
Seb  were  the  heaven  and  the  earth,  and  Shu 
the  air  or  space  which  separates  them.  In 
the  earliest  form  it  is  Ra  who  separates 
them  ; but  either  form  of  the  daily  rising 
of  Nut  from  Seb  is  evidently  the  lifting  of 
the  fog  and  mist  of  the  Nile  valley  from  off 
the  earth  and  raising  it  up  into  the  clouds 
of  the  sky.  The  sun  does  this  by  shining- 
on  it,  so  Ra  separates  Seb  and  Nut;  while 
later  the  more  abstract  idea  of  space — 
Shu — was  considered  the  separator.  The 
ostrich  feather,  the  hieroglyph  of  Shu,  is 


So 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


the  most  imponderable  object  for  its  bulk 
that  could  be  selected,  and  hence  the 
emblem  of  space.  Tefnut  is  merely  com- 
plementary to  Shu.  The  moon-god  Aah 
probably  belongs  to  this  group ; and  the 
other  form  of  the  sun — Aten — being  wor- 
shipped in  the  centre  of  Ra  influence, 
belongs  to  the  same  ideas. 

These  gods,  though  human  in  form,  differ 
essentially  from  the  previous  group,  as 
having  all  of  them  a cosmic  meaning,  and 
representing  the  elements  of  nature, — earth, 
sky,  air,  and  sun.  Their  connection  with 
the  twelve  hours  is  very  marked  ; the  sun 
was  always  passing  through  the  hours  of 
day  or  night,  and  every  hour  had  a different 
nature  and  was  the  region  of  different  spirits. 
The  great  seat  of  this  worship  was  at  Heli- 
opolis ; and  that  city — the  abode  of  “ the 
spirits  of  Heliopolis” — was  a centre  of 
literature  and  theology.  In  this  we  see  a 
strong  kinship  to  Mesopotamia  ; there  the 
twelve  hours  ruled  all  divisions  of  time  or 
space,  the  worship  of  spirits  or  demons  was 
frequent,  and  great  libraries  were  associated 
with  the  temples.  Above  all  the  cosmic 
view  of  religion  predominated ; the  sun, 
moon,  and  stars  were  adored,  and  the 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


81 


watery  chaos  was  parallel  to  the  waters 
of  Nu,  while  the  waters  above  the  heavens 
were  parallel  to  the  solar  river  of  the 
Egyptians  on  which  the  bark  of  the  sun  was 
navigated.  Of  course,  the  solar  theory  of 
the  soul  was  that  associated  with  this  religion. 
The  Mesopotamian  influence  in  Egypt  has 
long  been  recognized,  and  is  seen  to  be  later 
than  the  Osirian.  In  this  it  agrees  to  the 
position  of  the  Mesopotamians  invading  the 
Negro- Libyan  population.  And  we  should, 
perhaps,  see  in  Heliopolis  the  centre  of 
power  of  the  Eastern  invaders. 

33.  The  fourth  class  of  gods  are  those 
which  embody  more  abstract  ideas.  Ptah 
the  creator,  who  is  neither  Atmu  the  sun, 
nor  Khnumu  the  modeller,  but  rather  the 
architect  of  the  universe,  who  puts  it  all 
into  order,  with  his  companion  Maat,  who 
is  abstract  truth  and  law.  This  is  a very 
different  view  to  that  of  any  of  the  other 
gods.  And  similar  in  idealism  is  Min  the 
all-father,  and  Hathor  the  all-mother.  Later 
developments  of  these  brought  in  Imhotep 
with  Ptah,  as  a son  representing  the  peace 
and  learning  which  follows  on  law  and  order. 
And  Hathor  became  linked  with  Isis,  the 
previous  mother  goddess,  though  both  are 

F 


82 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


still  figured  separately  side  by  side  in  the 
XIXth  Dynasty;  and  Horus  thus  came  to 
be  connected  with  the  M in-worship.  The 
general  diffusion  of  Hathor-worship  over  all 
the  country,  without  excluding  any  previous 
divinity,  led  to  special  Hathors  of  each 
nome,  like  the  special  Madonnas  of  different 
towns  ; and  to  Hathor  beino'  identified  with 
many  of  the  goddesses.  It  is  not  im- 
probable that  the  system  of  mummifying 
belongs  to  this  class  of  gods.  We  have 
noticed  that  it  is  independent  of  all  the 
other  theories  of  the  soul,  and  was  probably 
a later  system  ; and  the  fact  of  the  Hathor 
cow  being  represented  as  galloping  into  the 
unseen  world  bearing  the  mummy  on  her 
back,  points  to  the  mummification  being 
part  of  the  religion  of  Hathor.  Historically 
we  should  see  in  this  class  of  gods  those 
of  the  latest  prehistoric  invaders,  the  Punite 
race.  Min  and  Hathor  we  have  already 
seen  to  belong  to  that  quarter  ; and  Ptah  is 
the  same  as  the  Patekh  of  the  Phoenicians, 
another  branch  of  the  Punites. 

We  must,  however,  carefully  notice  that 
this  view  of  some  group  of  gods  having 
the  same  nature,  and  belonging  to  the  same 
race,  does  not  at  all  imply  that  they  were 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


83 


originally  worshipped  together.  They  may 
very  probably  have  belonged  to  different 
tribes ; and  only  have  been  put  side  by 
side  as  tribal  or  political  union  spread.  Min 
and  Ptah  may  never  have  been  worshipped 
together  until  their  tribes  entered  Egypt. 
Amen  and  Osiris  may  have  been  strangers 
until  their  followers  became  unified  in  one 
land.  All  that  we  can  venture  to  do  is  to 
outline  a broad  classification  by  general 
direction,  east,  west,  or  south,  and  gain 
some  general  idea  of  the  sequence  in 
time,  without  any  hope  as  yet  of  separating 
between  the  various  tribes  of  each  quarter. 

34.  There  now  remain  to  be  considered 
the  gods  which  appear  to  be  foreign,  that 
is  to  say,  which  belong  to  invaders  who 
did  not  exercise  an  influence  over  the  whole 
country.  One  of  the  most  important  of 
these  is  Bes,  the  god  of  dancing,  music, 
and  luxury.  The  earliest  of  such  figures 
are  clearly  female,  and  down  to  the  latest 
age  a female  Bes  appears  as  well  as  the 
male  form.  The  shaggy  lion’s  head  is  seen 
on  a carving  of  the  Xllth  Dynasty  to  be 
a skin  worn  on  the  head,  with  the  tail 
hanging  down  behind ; and  such  a mask 
was  imitated  in  cartonnage  for  the  use  of 


84 


ANALYSIS  OF  THE 


dancers.  How  ancient  professional  dancers 
were  in  Egypt  is  seen  in  the  Westcar 
papyrus,  where  the  goddesses  appear  as 
travelling  dancing  girls.  It  seems  then  that 
Bes  originates  in  the  type  of  a girl  wearing 
a lion’s  skin.  It  was  considered  Arabian  in 
origin,  but  has  been  connected  with  the 
Denga  or  dwarf  who  is  named  as  dancing 
a sacred  dance  in  the  Vth  and  Vlth 
Dynasties.  It  seems  hard  not  to  connect 
this  with  the  lion-headed  goddess  of  the 
Arabian  nome,  Best  or  Bast,  especially  as 
dancing  festivals  were  held  in  her  honour. 

The  distinctly  Syrian  deities  are  six  : 
Anaitis,  Astarte,  Baal,  Kedesh,  Reshpu, 
and  Sutekh  ; and  the  worship  of  these  be- 
longs to  the  great  age  of  Syrian  mixture, 
the  XVIIIth  and  XIXth  Dynasties. 

35.  It  remains  now  to  notice  how  much 
the  worship  of  many  of  these  gods  fluctuates, 
how  one  god  would  sink,  while  others  rose  in 
importance.  We  can  best  see  this  statisti- 
cally by  the  number  of  references  to  gods 
in  various  periods ; but  we  must  first  set 
aside  those  which  rose  in  one  age  without 
any  previous  popularity,  such  as  Amen. 
Fixing  our  attention  on  the  principal  gods 
worshipped  throughout  all  ages,  and  reducing 


EGYPTIAN  MYTHOLOGY 


85 


the  numbers  so  as  to  give  them  a percentage 
in  each  period,  we  have  the  following  results  : 


IVth 

Vth 

Vlth 

Xllth 

XVIII- 

Am. IV 

Dynasty.  Dynasty.  Dynasty.  Dynasty. 

Am.  III. 

XX. 

Hekt  . 

. — 

I 

2 

5 

— 

I 

Tahuti 

• 23 

2 I 

17 

IO 

7 

9 

Khnumu 

1 

— 

— 

17 

I 

— 

Anpu  . 

. — 

3 

2 

— 

4 

5 

Sokar  . 

IO 

13 

14 

— 

1 

2 

Osiris  . 

• 5 

— 

2 

12 

8 

12 

Isis 

. I 

— 

2 

2 

9 

12 

Horus  . 

IO 

IO 

5 

7 

18 

15 

Neit 

. 8 

7 

5 

7 

I 

2 

Ra 

1 

1 

5 

2 

26 

14 

Seb 

I 

— 

2 

— 

5 

2 

Ptah  . 

9 

2 

!3 

2 

I 

8 

Maat  . 

I 

8 

5 

— 

3 

5 

Min  . 

• 5 

5 

5 

1 2 

I 

4 

Hathor 

■ 25 

29 

21 

24 

15 

9 

dere  we 

can 

see 

how 

the  Osiride 

anc 

Cosmic  gods  rose  in  importance  as  time 
went  on,  while  the  Abstract  gods  continually 
sank  on  the  whole.  This  agrees  to  the 
general  idea  that  the  later  imported  gods 
have  to  yield  their  position  gradually  to  the 
older  and  more  deeply-rooted  faiths. 


LECTURE  V. 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 

36.  It  has  long  been  recognized  that  the 
Egyptians  had  a much  more  highly  organ- 
ized conscience  than  that  of  most  other 
nations  of  early  times.  They  are  often 
spoken  of  as  a more  moral  people ; but  that 
phrase  is  ambiguous,  as  it  may  refer  to  the 
complexity  of  the  conscience,  or  the  practical 
conformity  to  the  conscience.  How  far  the 
Egyptians  conformed  to  their  theoretic  stan- 
dards is  quite  a different  question  ; but  their 
standards  were  certainly  more  definite,  and 
apparently  higher,  than  those  of  many  other 
peoples.  In  many  respects  they  are  far 
higher  than  those  of  the  Greeks,  and  ap- 
proach most  to  the  Roman  standard  after 
Stoic  philosophy  and  Christianity  had  suc- 
cessively purged  and  improved  it.  This 
organized  conscience  has  left  many  detailed 
expositions  to  us,  in  the  Precepts  of  Kagemni 

86 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  87 


and  Ptahhotep  of  the  Vth  Dynasty;  in  the 
two  negative  confessions  or  repudiations  of 
sins  before  the  judgment  of  Osiris,  which 
are  probably  much  older,  but  only  exist  in 
later  versions  ; in  the  tablet  of  Antef  of  the 
Xllth  Dynasty  (Brit.  Mus.,  Sharpe,  ii.  83); 
Instructions  of  Amenemhat  of  the  Xllth 
Dynasty ; in  the  maxims  of  Any  of  the 
XIXth  Dynasty  ; the  precepts  in  a Ptolemaic 
papyrus  in  the  Louvre  (x.  9),  and  isolated 
sayings  in  the  Xlth  Dynasty  Song  of  the 
Harper,  and  some  grave  steles.  We  are, 
therefore,  able  to  study  it  in  detail,  and  to 
classify  a mass  of  ideas  which  have  definite 
dates  affixed  to  them  as  a minimum  ; hence 
we  obtain  a tolerably  complete  view  of  the 
Conscience  of  the  Egyptians.  One  great 
value  of  such  a study  is  that  it  is  dealing 
with  a people  so  much  more  advanced  than 
their  neighbours  in  such  ideas,  that  we  have 
before  us  an  internally  developing  system 
rather  than  an  accidental  jumble  of  imposed 
ideas  from  other  sources,  which  constitutes 
the  morality  of  most  later  races. 

37.  It  may  not  be  out  of  place  to  consider 
first,  somewhat  briefly,  what  we  mean  by 
conscience  ; not  by  any  means  to  construct 
an  artificial  definition  of  the  idea,  nor  to 


88  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


argue  as  to  its  limits  in  relation  to  other 
conceptions,  for  that  would  lead  us  into  the 
barren  grounds  of  speculation.  But  rather  let 
us  look  practically  at  the  acts  of  others  around 
us,  and  into  own  our  minds.  Conscience 
is  that  mass  of  the  intuitions  of  right  and 
wrong,  which  are  born  in  the  structure  of 
the  thoughts,  though  they  may  often  need 
development  before  the  latent  structure 
becomes  active.  A plant  does  not  put  out 
its  leaves  and  flowers  all  at  once  ; yet  they 
are  latent,  and  are  inevitable  if  any  develop- 
ment of  growth  takes  place.  And  thus, 
perhaps,  some  can  look  back  to  a time  when 
only  one  or  two  elements  of  conscience  were 
yet  active  in  their  minds,  such  as  a sense 
of  justice  and  injustice,  and  they  reflected 
then  that  no  act  would  seem  wrong  or 
shocking  if  it  was  not  unjust.  Yet  later 
on,  as  the  mind  grew  (and  growth  or  death 
is  the  choice  to  the  mind,  though  the  body 
may  continue  an  animal  existence),  the 
various  other  elements  of  conscience  un- 
folded gradually  from  some  central  stem 
(such  as  that  of  justice)  which  had  first 
sprung  up. 

It  is  needful  to  remember  thus  that  con- 
science is  an  inherited  development,  as  much 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  89 


an  inheritance  in  the  structure  of  the  brain 
as  any  other  special  modification  is  in  the 
body — needful  because  in  the  consideration 
of  the  springs  of  action  it  has  been  generally 
the  habit  to  deal  with  the  individual  as  if 
he  had  a perfectly  blank  mind,  and  was  only 
impressed  by  the  facts  of  life  around  him  in 
a perfectly  calculating  and  unbiassed  manner. 
On  the  contrary  the  untrained  mind  teems 
with  prospects  of  every  kind,  possible  and 
impossible,  at  every  change  of  surrounding, 
and  acts  far  more  by  impulse  and  intuition 
than  by  precise  calculations  of  theoretical 
right  or  utility.  This  is  seen  most  plainly 
in  the  waywardness  of  children  and  savages  ; 
the  ideas  of  all  kinds  of  possibilities  are 
present,  and  the  growth  of  conscience 
and  of  habit  is  not  yet  strong  enough  to 
determine  uniformly  which  opening  shall  be 
followed.  Thus  we  may  look  on  each  person 
as  only  a fragment  of  the  common  life  of 
mankind,  inheriting  in  his  brain-structure  a 
tendency  to  certain  lines  of  action  and  cer- 
tain choices  between  opposing  claims.  He 
is  the  heir  of  all  his  ancestors,  and  specially 
of  those  nearest  to  him ; for,  as  Galton 
has  shown  by  physical  tests,  inheritance  of 
special  characters  rapidly  diminishes  in  each 


90  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


succeeding  generation,  and  there  is  a constant 
tendency  thus  to  revert  to  an  average  type. 

38.  From  this  point  of  view  we  see  at  once 
how  it  is  that  the  utilitarian — such  as  Mill 
or  Herbert  Spencer — can  point  triumphantly 
to  the  fact  that  the  moral  ideas  of  right 
conform  to  what  is  the  greatest  utility,  though 
often  a far-fetched  utility  to  the  race,  rather 
than  utility  directly  to  the  individual.  It  is 
not,  as  he  assumes,  that  the  individual  argues 
carefully  from  utility  to  right ; but,  rather, 
that  the  stress  of  utility  has  throughout 
human  history  crushed  out  all  those  strains 
of  thought  that  were  least  helpful.  Starting 
with  the  wild  mass  of  wayward  minds  with 
infinitely  varying  choice  of  action  before 
each,  all  those  which  were  least  useful  in 
the  long-  run  went  to  the  wall,  found  diffi- 
culties  and  hindrances  to  life  prevail  against 
them,  and  died  out.  Those  minds  whose 
impulses  were  the  most  useful  and  most 
regular  and  consistent  succeeded  best,  and 
hence  that  type  of  brain  descended  to  future 
generations.  In  short,  utility  has  been  the 
great  selecting  agent  in  brain  variation  as 
in  bodily  variation.  And  the  result  is  that 
the  great  mass  of  inherited  habits  of  thought, 
which  we  call  intuitions  or  conscience,  are 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  91 


those  which  in  the  long  run  are  most  useful 
to  the  individual  and  to  his  community  in 
general ; those  which  will  lead  his  descen- 
dants most  surely  to  success  among  their 
fellows,  and  which  will  help  his  community 
to  hold  its  ground  against  others.  Here  we 
have  a complete  explanation  of  the  often 
distant  and  intricate  utility  of  some  intuition 
or  moral  principle,  which  may  be  directly 
opposed  to  the  comfort  or  even  the  well- 
being of  the  individual.  A mental  type  of 
a community  which  produces  on  the  average 
a certain  number  of  martyrs  to  conscience, 
may  thus  ensure  to  itself  that  strength  which 
may  lead  it  to  success  over  the  fallen  bodies 
of  its  saviours ; their  conduct  is  strictly 
utilitarian,  though  it  would  be  impossible 
to  deduce  it  from  any  argument  of  utility 
to  themselves.  I have  dwelt  on  this  because 
it  constrains  us  in  the  most  decisive  way  to 
place  utility  as  the  blind  selecting  agent 
acting  on  the  race,  and  not  as  the  choice 
of  the  individual,  and  so  explains  the  utili- 
tarian action  of  the  person  apart  from 
any  argument  in  his  own  mind.  (See 
Note  A.) 

This  clears  out  of  the  way  the  imperious, 
yet  sole,  argument  against  the  reality  of  the 


92  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


rule  of  intuition  ; and  we  are  free  to  accept 
what  is  to  some — perhaps  to  all  — the  obvious 
mode  of  working  of  the  mind.  We  do  not 
act  by  elaborate  calculation  of  consequences, 
but  by  a certain  sense  of  what  seems  the 
inevitable  course  in  the  circumstances  ; we 
follow  our  inherited  intuitions,  and  the  more 
we  develop  and  unfold  them,  the  more  we 
let  them  rule  over  the  mere  impulse  of  the 
momentary  feeling,  the  safer  we  are  and 
the  more  surely  are  we  in  the  way  of  right 
fulfilment.  W e are,  then,  trusting  not  to 
momentary  expediency,  but  to  the  great 
growth  of  intuition,  battered  and  lopped 
and  toughened  into  its  most  sturdy  and 
useful  form  by  all  the  blasts  of  adversity 
that  countless  ancestors  have  endured,  and 
by  which  they  have  been  shaped.  This  is 
Conscience. 

In  thus  briefly  glancing  over  the  ground, 
as  a mere  explanatory  preface  to  our  view  of 
Conscience  among  the  Egyptians,  we  cannot 
possibly  deal  with  the  various  constructive 
evidences  by  which  we  are  led  to  this  general 
statement  : such  as  the  examples  of  heredi- 
tary intuition  and  mental  processes,  apart 
from  education  ; the  parallels  of  physical  in- 
heritance ; the  manifest  growth  of  a body 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  93 


of  moral  intuition,  even  in  the  midst  of 
decaying  societies  where  everything  was 
against  each  fresh  generation  ; the  absence 
of  conscience  in  most  races  where  early 
marriage  prevails  ; and  the  well-known  ad- 
vantage of  the  later  over  the  earlier  members 
of  the  same  family  in  their  mental  ability, 
tact,  and  intuition,  due  to  their  inheriting  a 
more  developed  brain.  But  we  have  here 
indicated  that  such  a view  of  the  conscience, 
as  a body  of  intuition  gradually  shaped  by 
the  stress  of  hard  utility,  and  pruned  of  all 
its  varieties  that  were  not  permanently  suc- 
cessful,— that  such  a view  is  the  key  which 
fits  the  great  puzzle  of  the  strength  of  in- 
tuition and  the  prevalence  of  utility,  as  no 
other  explanation  can  fit  it. 

39.  This  leads  to  the  practical  view  of  the 
paramount  value  of  the  proper  unfolding  of 
the  inherited  intuitions,  and  of  the  strengthen- 
ing, selecting,  and  guarding  of  them  by  each 
person  who  is  thus  the  temporary  trustee  of 
the  great  inheritance  of  the  race.  A duty  to 
this  precious  growth  which  is  paramount  over 
all  other  duties  of  life  to  the  person,  to  the 
fellow-men  to  whom  the  individual’s  charac- 
ter is  the  most  valued  part  of  him,  and  to 
those  who  may  come  after.  A rightly  organ- 


94  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


ized  intuition  of  moral  perception,  of  judg- 
ment, and  of  feeling,  is  worth  any  amount  of 
temporizing  calculations,  which  always  have 
to  deal  with  unknown  forces.  And  this  is 
indeed  most  closely  parallel  to  our  acquisi- 
tion of  knowledge  in  other  matters.  Pro- 
bably few,  it  any,  persons  remember  even  a 
small  part  of  what  they  read  ; and  yet  there 
is  all  the  difference  possible  between  a well- 
read  and  an  ignorant  man.  In  what  does 
this  difference  consist  if  the  actual  words 
and  facts  are  not  remembered  ? It  consists 
in  the  education  of  his  intuitive  knowledge, 
in  shaping  and  leading  the  mind,  so  that 
without  being  able  to  quote  a single  exact 
parallel,  he  can  yet  frame  a correct  judg- 
ment on  history  or  on  present  life,  and  say 
at  once  if  an  assertion  is  likely  or  a future 
event  is  probable.  Often  a book  is  read — 
perhaps  most  books  are  read — not  to  retain 
a single  detail  in  mind,  but  in  order  to 
consciously  modify  or  expand  the  general 
mass  of  opinion  and  knowledge  in  the  mind. 
And  this  is  one  of  the  strongest  revelations 
to  us  of  the  vast  mass  of  organized  intuitions 
which  we  unconsciously  bear  in  our  minds, 
to  which  we  apply  on  all  occasions,  and  by 
which  we  rule  our  lives. 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  95 


40.  To  most  people  the  ideas  of  varieties 
of  right  and  wrong  are  but  vague  ; some 
things  are  judged  to  be  always  right,  others 
always  wrong,  and  many  between  are  said 
to  “ depend  upon  circumstances.”  The 
whole  subject  seems  indefinable  ; a sort  of 
mist,  with  some  kind  of  a heaven  at  the  top, 
and  some  kind  of  a hell  at  the  bottom  of  it. 
And  often  there  is  a vague  notion  that  many 
things  are  right  according  to  one  code,  and 
wrong  according  to  another ; a difference 
formulated  in  the  discrepancies  between 
custom,  law,  and  canon  law. 

Yet  amid  all  this  there  is  a general  agree- 
ment as  to  the  relative  scale  of  right  and 
wrong  actions  in  any  one  subject,  and  most 
people  will  agree  that  one  action  is  certainly 
better  or  worse  than  another.  The  confusion 
mainly  comes  in  when  we  attempt  to  pit 
a right  of  one  kind  against  a wrong  of 
another  kind,  as  when  we  attempt  to  weigh 
kindness  against  injustice. 

Now  if  we  can  bring  in  any  system  of 
thought  in  order  to  arrange  our  ideas  on 
this  it  will  be  a great  gain.  Not  an  arbitrary 
regulation,  nor  a code  of  abstract  notions, 
nor  any  a priori  arguments  ; of  such  there 
have  been  far  too  many.  What  we  need  to 


96  THE  NATURE  OE  CONSCIENCE 


do  is  to  ascertain  what  the  actual  ways  of 
human  thoughts  really  are,  and  to  what  laws 
they  conform.  The  only  way  to  begin  is 
to  view  one  subject  at  a time,  such  as  truth- 
fulness, kindness,  self-restraint,  or  justice. 
Of  these  it  will  be  most  convenient  to  take 
truthfulness  as  the  example  for  discussion  ; 
and  one  particular  branch  of  that,  as  ex- 
hibited in  honesty  towards  the  government, 
is  what  we  can  learn  more  about  than  any 
other. 

The  first  thing  to  arrange  our  ideas  about 
is  the  relative  order  in  which  most  men 
regard  degrees  of  truthfulness.  Let  us  lay 
down  certain  stages  of  falsehood  which  may 
be  generally  regarded  as  clearly  each  worse 
than  the  previous. 

Lying  to  save  many  innocent  lives, 

„ to  save  one  innocent  life, 

,,  to  save  great  losses  of  property  or  character 
to  others, 

„ to  save  great  pain  to  others, 

„ to  avoid  great  pain, 

„ to  save  family  character, 

„ to  gain  advantage  for  a family, 

„ to  save  personal  character, 

„ to  gain  important  personal  advantage, 

„ for  moderate  gain, 

„ for  pleasures, 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  97 


Lying  for  sake  of  contradictions, 

„ for  trivial  gain, 

„ to  annoy  others, 

„ to  avoid  slight  pain  or  inconvenience, 

„ for  pleasure  of  deception, 

„ from  hatred  of  anything  going  aright. 

Here  we  should  have  something  like  a 
definite  scale  of  one  particular  virtue,  always 
supposing  that  the  directness  of  the  lie  was 
equal,  say  a plain  direct  negative  to  a direct 
question  clearly  expected.  Of  course  many 
people  would  descend  to  a far  lower  level 
if  a mere  suggestion  or  innuendo  would  gain 
their  end.  Now  this  is  not  a mere  curiosity, 
or  piece  of  casuistry,  to  form  such  a scale  ; 
it  is  like  the  earliest  thermometers,  divided 
into  “temperate,”  “summer  heat,”  “blood 
heat,”  and  “fever  heat,”  it  is  the  first  step 
to  definition.  What  point  in  the  scale  some 
ancient  Greeks  would  have  occupied  may  be 
seen  in  Note  B. 

41.  The  next  step  is  to  consider  how 
many  people  will  descend  to  each  of  these 
levels.  Out  of  a hundred  ordinary  people 
perhaps  only  one  would  refuse  to  tell  a lie  to 
save  a man’s  life  ; perhaps  twenty  or  thirty 
might  be  truthful  in  face  of  great  pain  of 
mind  or  body ; perhaps  fifty  would  be 

G 


98  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


truthful  where  no  great  advantage  was  to 
be  gained  ; perhaps  eighty  would  resist  the 
temptation  where  only  small  gains  or  spite 
was  the  reason  ; and  only  one  or  two  would 
lie  out  of  sheer  perversity. 

The  common  idea  probably  is  that  a large 
part  of  our  race  are  to  be  classed  as 
“truthful,”  all  much  alike,  and  below  that 
there  are  fewer  and  fewer  truthful  folks 
found  in  increasing  “depths  of  depravity.” 
Perhaps  those  who  would  be  reckoned 
usually  as  truthful  are  people  who  would  not 
lie  to  save  themselves  great  pain,  or  to 
save  the  characters  of  their  family.  If  we 
then  call  attention  to  higher  degrees  of 


truthfulness  they  are  merely  said  to  be 
“ exceptional.” 

In  short,  if  we  were  to 
represent  each  person  who  de- 
scended to  a particular  level 
by  a stroke,  1,  we  should  have 
so  many  strokes  above  one 
level,  so  many  more  who  de- 
scended lower,  so  many  more 
who  descended  lower  still,  and 
so  forth,  until  we  could  define 
the  proportion  of  people  who 
are  included  in  each  successive 


Fig.  X. 


stage 


of 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  99 


truthfulness  by  an  outline  as  here  shown. 
(Fig-  !•) 

But  we  have  no  right  to  draw  a line 
anywhere  as  the  abstract  truthfulness ; the 
higher  grades  are  just  as  much 
part  of  the  whole  series  as  the 
lower  ; and  if  it  is  true  that  very 
few  persons  will  limit  themselves 
by  the  highest  grades,  so  it  is  also 
true  that  very  few  descend  to  the 
lowest.  The  extreme  cases  are 
the  exceptions,  and  we  may  mark 
them  by  a single  example ; on 
the  other  hand,  there  is  a great 
mass  of  mankind  about  the  middle 
grades,  and  we  must,  therefore, 
have  a great  many  strokes  there 
(Fig.  2) ; the  outline  then  that 
defines  the  commonness  of  differ- 
ent grades  of  lying  will  be  widest 
out  in  the  middle,  and  run  off  tapering  above 
and  below. 

Now  this  approximates  to  the  result  which 
is  very  well  known  as  the  law  of  distribution 
of  errors,  or  the  “probability  curve.”  That 
is  to  say,  that  whenever  a simple  quality  is 
liable  to  variation,  whether  it  be  the  height 
or  weight  of  a large  number  of  men  or 


100  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


animals,  the  variations  of  temperature,  the 
errors  of  measurement,  or  any  other  simple 
variable,  it  is  always  found  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  examples  are  in  the  middle,  and 
fewer  toward  the  ends  ; and  that  if,  for  in- 
stance, a certain  number  of  men  vary  one 
inch  from  the  average  height,  there  will  be 
a fixed  proportion  that  vary  two  inches, 
and  another  fixed  proportion  that  vary  three 
inches,  and  so  forth.  So  that  the  distribution 
of  variation,  or  the  number  of  examples  that 
agree  to  each  different  standard,  always  fol- 
lows a certain  law  of  distribution.  So  certain 
is  this  that  any  distinct  departure  from  this 
distribution  is  always  accepted  as  proof  that 
some  disturbing  cause  is  at  work  ; a different 
kind  of  distribution  would  be  found  for 
instance  in  the  heio-ht  of  soldiers,  because 
all  men  below  a certain  standard  are  rejected. 

Is  it  possible  then  that  moral  distribution 
follows  the  same  law  as  all  other  natural 
variations  ? To  anyone  accustomed  to  the 
regularity  of  the  distribution  of  all  other 
variations,  this  would  hardly  seem  to  need 
proof.  But  to  many  persons  moral  law  is 
supposed  to  be  something  so  spiritual,  and 
so  outside  of  the  realm  of  force  and  matter, 
that  it  may  be  surprising  to  see  it  treated 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  ioi 


like  any  other  case  of  the  variations  found  in 
nature.  It  is  difficult  to  obtain  any  sufficient 
mass  of  accurate  information  on  any  subject 
of  morals  or  conscience  for  us  to  test  exactly 
this  general  similarity  that  we  have  seen  to 
probably  hold  good  between  moral  and 
physical  distribution. 

42.  One  subject,  however,  promises  to 
give  a result.  The  well-known  contribu- 
tions of  “Conscience  Money”  to  the  Ex- 
chequer afford  a large  mass  of  statistics, 
and  I have  dealt  with  nearly  five  thousand 
amounts  received  during  thirty  years,  the 
details  of  which  I was  permitted  to  have 
extracted  from  the  Treasury  records.  It  is 
true  that  this  only  refers  to  a section  of 
the  population,  those  who  happen  to  escape 
paying  their  legal  assessment,  and  who  yet 
feel  uneasy  at  not  having  done  so.  From 
certain  details  that  we  can  observe,  it  appears 
that  these  payments  are  largely  the  sums  of 
continued  accumulations  of  arrears,  rather 
than  single  large  items  ; and  this  is  all  the 
better  for  our  purpose,  as  the  amounts  thus 
represent  what  strains  the  conscience  in 
different  individuals  and  makes  them  uneasy 
enough  to  take  the  trouble,  and  make  up 
their  minds,  to  give  up  the  amount  due  to 


102  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


the  Exchequer.  This  is  also  an  admirable 
subject  for  study  from  the  comparative  sim- 
plicity of  the  motives  involved.  There  is 
no  influence  of  affection  nor  of  shame,  as 
the  payment  is  made  to  the  impersonal 
nation  at  large,  and  is  very  generally 
anonymous,  and  never  the  subject  of  self- 
advertisement  or  glorification.  We  cannot 
say  as  much  for  any  other  form  of  payment 
depending  on  the  conscience.  Moreover, 
it  covers  all  classes  of  society  except  the 
very  lowest,  and  varies  as  much  as  one  to 
a million  in  its  effects. 

When  we  come  to  treat  the  amounts  thus 
received  we  find  that  they  follow  very 
closely  indeed  the  general  law  of  the  distri- 
bution of  variations.  The  main  exception 
is  the  deficiency  from  about  gj  i icxy.  to  ^5, 
and  the  great  excess  at  ^5.  This  is 
readily  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  so 
many  payments  are  anonymous,  and  a ^5 
note  is  one  of  the  handiest  ways  of  making 
anonymous  payments.  That  this  facility  of 
the  £5  note  abstracts  from  the  proportion  of 
lower  payments  is  interesting  evidence  that 
the  payments  are  cumulative  amounts  and 
not  mostly  single  dues.  The  man  who  owes 
over  30/-  or  so  is  induced  to  hold  back  until 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  103 


he  can  send  the  convenient  ^5  note.  The 
many  other  results  we  cannot  treat  of  at 
present,  but  will  only  say  that  the  more 
punctilious  conscience  belongs  to  rather 
poorer  people  whose  average  is  only  £ 2 
or  £$  due,  and  not  £5  i6.y.,  which  is  the 
usual  average  due ; that  conscience  is  twice 
as  keen  in  March  as  it  is  in  September,  the 
economy  of  the  winter  enabling  men  to 
afford  a conscience  better  than  when  antici- 
pating or  enjoying  the  summer  holiday ; 
and  the  clearing  of  conscience  is  largely  a 
vague  affair  of  a round  lump  sum,  not  half 
the  payments  being  at  all  exact  amounts. 

The  most  important  result,  however,  is 
that  conscience  is,  like  all  other  variables, 
subject  to  the  laws  of  averages  and  distri- 
bution. That  exactly  as  many  people  will 
pay  in  a tenth  of  the  average  amount  as  pay 
in  ten  times  the  average,  as  many  payments 
of  10/-  as  there  are  of  ^50;  or  further,  as 
many  people  will  pay  in  1/6  or  «V  of  the 
average  as  pay  in  ^320  or  64  times  the 
average.  This  distinctive  point  of  the  law 
of  probabilities,  the  equality  of  instances 
at  points  equidistant  from  the  average, 
above  and  below  it,  is  fully  and  remark- 
ably carried  out,  though  we  here  deal  with 


i04  THE  NATURE  0E  CONSCIENCE 


conscience  concerning  pence  on  the  one  hand 
and  hundreds  of  pounds  on  the  other.  For 
some  further  details  see  Note  C. 

43.  Having  thus  obtained  one  of  the  best 


Fig.  3.  Fig.  4. 


and  most  unmixed  confirmations  that  we  can 
hope  to  get  of  the  application  of  the  laws 
of  distribution  to  moral  questions,  let  us 
apply  this  system  as  a mode  of  visualizing 
and  giving  consistency  to  our  thoughts  on 
such  subjects.  We  may  say  in  looking  at 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  105 


such  a curve  that  it  represents  the  variations 
of  mood  and  influences  in  the  individual 
which  determine  his  good  and  bad  acts ; 
or  the  variations  between  individuals  in  a 
whole  class  or  nation. 

We  can  contrast  rigid 
and  narrow  habits 
(Fig.  3)  with  those 
of  wider  feeling  and 
passion  (Fig.  4).  We 
can  represent  the 
character  of  the  mo- 
rality of  different  men 
or  different  races  0 
(Fig-  5)  — some  (a) 
very  variable  and 
reachinggreat  heights 
as  well  as  great  depths 
— some  (b)  rather 
high  as  a whole,  but 
not  varying  so  much 
and  never  so  good  or  so  bad  as  a ; some 
(c)  very  uniform,  but  never  worth  much. 

And  further,  this  enables  us  to  clearly 
think  of  the  effects  which  a standard  of 
conduct  may  have  on  the  national  conscience. 
Many  people  will  be  affected  by  the  existence 
of  a standard  ; those  who  are  naturally  a 


io6  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


little  worse  than  the  standard  will  be  con- 
siderably drawn  to  conform  to  it ; those  who 
are  more  distant  from  it  will  less  often  feel 
it  possible  to  pay  attention  to  it ; and  those 
who  are  very  far  below  it  will  not  even  try 


Fig.  6.  Fig.  7. 


to  regard  it.  Also  those  who  would  other- 
wise be  a little  better  than  the  standard  will 
give  way  and  say  that  it  is  good  enough 
for  them,  while  those  far  above  it  will  hold 
to  their  own  high  level. 

44.  This  brings  before  us  very  forcibly 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  107 


the  question  of  the  benefit  of  a very  high 
standard,  or  one  nearer  the  common  average. 
In  the  case  of  a very  high  standard  the 
danger  is  that  it  will  attract  such  a slender 


portion  of  the  whole  area 
of  variation  that  it  will 
benefit  very  few  people 
(Fig.  6) ; and,  in  short,  be 
hypocritically  concurred 
in,  but  practically  dis- 
regarded. A standard 
nearer  to  the  average  will 
have  a more  generally 
useful  effect  (Fig.  7) ; 
while  one  even  lower  may 
yet  be  more  useful,  as  in 
Fig.  8.  But  too  low  a 
standard  may  do  no  good 
by  not  being  far  enough 
from  the  average  to  raise 
it.  Of  course,  the  stronger 
the  standard,  or  the  greater  influence  there 
is  of  religion,  shame,  good  feeling,  or  other 
motive  for  obeying  it,  the  further  it  may  be 
placed  from  the  average,  while  yet  having 
sufficient  attractive  power  to  be  of  value  in 
its  results. 

There  may  be  also  two  or  three  different 


Fig.  8. 


io8  THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE 


standards  all  acting  at  once  (Fig.  9) ; a very 
high  church -going  standard,  very  seldom 
effective;  a powerful  lower  standard  of 
trade  custom  ; and  a residuum  much  lower 
than  that,  of  the  natural  character. 


Fig.  9. 


And  two  or  three  standards  may  co-exist 
in  one  character  owing  to  antagonistic 
motives,  which  result  in  a course  of  action 
which  is  often  in  extremes  (Fig.  10).  For 
instance,  on  a basis  of  general  good  nature 
(a)  a man  may  have  a strong  family 


THE  NATURE  OF  CONSCIENCE  109 


affection  (b),  but  be  extremely  avaricious 
(c).  When  he  comes  to  dealing  with  his 
children  he  may  be  therefore  in  money 
matters  readily  in  extremes,  but  not  so  often 
in  a middle  course. 

We  have  at  least  now  seen  enough  to  be 
able  to  picture  before  us  the  variations  of 
motive  and  character ; and  we  can  thus 
consider  the  nature  of  conscience  with  a 
mental  analysis  and  a clearness  of  concep- 
tion which  would  otherwise  be  impossible. 


LECTURE  VI. 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 

45.  In  dealing  with  nearly  two  hundred 
maxims  or  expressions  of  conscience  which 
we  have  gathered  from  Egyptian  sources, 
it  is  needful  to  have  some  system  of  classi- 
fying them,  so  as  to  place  together  those 
which  are  similar  and  which  serve  together 
to  build  up  a picture  of  the  Egyptian  mind 
on  one  side  or  another.  Seven  classes  are 
here  separately  dealt  with,  namely,  the  rules 
and  maxims  of  ( 1 ) the  personal  character  ; 
(2),  the  material  interests;  (3),  the  family 
duties,  all  of  which  we  may  call  the  inner 
duties;  while  the  outer  duties  are  (4)  the 
relations  to  equals ; (5),  the  relations  to 
superiors ; (6),  the  relations  to  inferiors ; 
(7),  the  duties  to  the  gods.  And  in  each 
class  we  shall  deal  with  the  general  ideas 
before  noticing  the  more  particular  and 
detailed.  For  most  of  the  translations  here 


no 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


1 1 1 


I am  indebted  to  Mr.  Griffith,  who  feels 
considerable  reserve  about  some  of  the 
renderings.  The  tablet  of  Antef  is  from 
a copy  made  by  Mr.  Alan  Gardiner. 

46.  One  of  the  most  valuable  sources 
of  our  information  is  in  the  (5)  great 
“negative  confession”  as  it  is  commonly 
called,  or  rather  “ repudiation  of  sins  ” as 
it  might  be  better  termed,  before  the  judg- 
ment of  Osiris.  It  is  probably  one  of  the 
oldest  documents  that  remain  to  us  on  this 
subject,  and  is  specially  valuable,  as  it  pre- 
sumably strings  together  every  action  that 
was  felt  to  be  an  infringement  of  moral  law 
at  the  time  when  it  was  composed.  There 
are  two  forms  of  this  repudiation  ; one  of 
about  37  declarations,  and  another,  similar 
in  nature,  often  repeating  the  earlier  list, 
but  of  42  declarations.  The  latter  is  more 
artificial,  as  it  calls  on  a separate  spirit  in 
each  declaration ; and  the  number  42  is 
probably  connected  with  the  42  judges  who 
sit  with  Osiris,  and  those,  in  turn,  with  the 
division  of  Egypt  into  42  nomes. 

It  is  strange  that  there  are  no  family 
duties  in  either  declaration  ; and  this  sug- 
gests that  the  bond  of  the  family  was  not  of 
prominent  importance  at  the  time  of  the 


1 12 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


framing  of  these  lists,  but  that  such  duties 
were  considered  only  as  a part  of  the 
general  duties  to  fellow-beings.  Of  the 
classes  of  duties  then  we  find — 


List  A.  List  B. 


Duties  to  character 

7 

...  18 

Duties  to  material  welfare  . 

0 

...  0 

Duties  to  family  . 

0 

...  0 

Duties  to  equals  . 

13 

...  16 

Duties  to  inferiors 

10 

1 

Duties  to  superiors 

0 

...  0 

Duties  to  gods 

9 

...  6 

The  main  difference  between  these  two 
lists  is  that  in  the  earlier  time  the  duties 
to  inferiors  were  put  more  forward  than  the 
duties  to  the  man’s  own  character ; in  the 
later  time  the  duty  to  the  development  of 
character  and  of  intuitions  was  felt  to  in- 
clude in  it  all  that  was  needful  to  recount 
as  duty  to  inferiors.  The  two  lists  are 
simply  referred  to  as  A and  B hereafter. 

47.  The  Egyptian  felt  very  strongly  the 
value  of  strength  of  character,  and  of  self- 
control.  “ I have  not  been  weak,”  he  boldly 
asserted  to  Osiris  (A.  10)  as  one  of  the 
repudiations  of  wrong-doing,  which  qualified 
him  for  eternal  blessing.  And  Any  says, 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


1 13 

“ Let  not  the  heart  despair  before  thyself, 
turning  upside  down  its  favours  (happiness)* 
at  once  after  an  evil  hour”  (60) ; this  large- 
minded  steadfastness  is  also  enjoined  by  Any 
thus,  “If  thou  art  good  thou  shalt  be  re- 
garded ; and  in  company  or  in  solitude  thou 
findest  thy  people  (helpers)  and  they  do  all 
thy  commands.”  (34.)  And  similarly  Any 
enjoins  firm  resolutions,  “If  thou  goest  in 
the  straight  road,  thou  shalt  reach  the 
intended  place  ” (Any,  29)  ; and  also  “ Give 
thine  eye  (look  well  to  thyself)  ; thy  exist- 
ence lowly  or  lofty  is  not  well  fixed  (is 
liable  to  change)  ; go  straight  forward,  and 
thou  wilt  fill  the  way.”  (Any,  44.)  There 
will  be  no  room  for  deviation  and  uncertainty 
if  a resolute  course  is  firmly  adopted. 

Of  self-training  and  control  we  read,  “ If 
thou  art  found  good  in  the  time  of  prosperity, 
when  adversity  comes  thou  wilt  find  thyself 
able  to  endure.”  (Any,  32.)  And  again,  “ Be 
not  greedy  to  fill  thy  stomach,  for  one  knows 
no  reason  why  he  should  do  so ; when  thou 
earnest  into  existence  I gave  thee  a different 
excellency.”  (Any,  42.)  Or  to  put  this  in 

* The  words  and  phrases  in  parentheses  are  paraphrases, 
additions,  or  alternative  expressions  to  show  the  meaning 
more  clearly,  while  not  modifying  the  actual  idiom  of  the 
original. 

H 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


1 14 

western  words,  “ Yield  not  to  mere  desires 
which  rest  not  upon  reason,  for  you  were 
made  for  better  things  than  that.” 

Self-respect  is  also  enjoined  by  Any  : “ If 
a man  is  drunken,  go  not  before  him,  even 
when  it  would  be  an  honour  to  be  introduced” 
(6)  ; and  also,  “ Go  not  among  the  multitude, 
in  order  that  thy  name  may  not  be  fouled.” 
(9.)  And  in  the  later  precepts  it  is  said, 

‘ ‘ Make  not  a companion  of  a wicked  man.  ” (3. ) 

Readiness  and  boldness  appear  in  the 
early  time  of  Ptah-hotep  : “If  thou  findest 
a debater  in  his  moment  (speaking  success- 
fully) thine  equal,  who  is  within  thy  reach, 
to  whom  thou  canst  cause  thyself  to  become 
superior,  be  not  silent  when  he  speaketh 
evil ; a great  thing  is  the  approval  of  the 
hearers,  that  thy  name  should  be  good  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  nobles.”  (3.)  And 
later  Any  says  similarly,  “ He  who  is 
embarrassed  by  a liar  should  make  reply  ; 
then  god  judgeth  truly,  and  his  trespass 
riseth  against  him.”  (38.) 

Activity  was  also  one  of  the  great  claims 
for  the  future  blessing : before  Osiris  the 
soul  declared,  “ I have  not  been  lazy  ” 
(B.  11),  and  “I  have  not  been  empty  (of 
good).”  (A.  9.)  And  similarly,  “ I have 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


1 1 5 

not  known  vanity  (meanness  or  unprofit- 
ableness) ” (A.  4) ; and  “ I have  not  made 
bubbles.”  (B  39.)  Special  importance  to 
straightforwardness  was  also  given  in  the 
declaration  at  the  judgment.  “ I have  not 
acted  perversely  instead  of  straightforwardly.” 
(A.  3.)  “I  have  not  acted  crookedly” 
(B.  7);  “I  have  not  made  confusion” 
(B.  25)  ; “I  have  not  been  deaf  to  the 
words  of  truth.”  (B.  24.)  Thus  no  less 
than  eight  declarations  in  the  most  solemn 
list  of  the  great  judgment  turn  on  the 
activity  and  directness  of  character,  which 
has  in  all  ages  been  a quality  worth  even 
more  than  the  cleverness  of  subtlety. 

A delightful  picture  is  drawn  by  Ptah- 
hotep  of  the  disastrous  lack  of  common 
sense,  that  is  as  well  known  now  as  in  his 
early  times.  “Verily  the  ignorant  man  who 
hearkeneth  not,  nothing  can  be  done  to  him. 
He  seeth  knowledge  as  ignorance  ; profitable 
things  as  hurtful ; he  maketh  every  kind  of 
mistake  so  that  he  is  reprimanded  every 
day.  His  life  is  as  death  therewith  ; it  is 
his  food.  Absurdity  of  talk  he  marvelleth 
at  as  the  knowledge  of  nobles,  dying  while 
he  liveth  every  day.  People  avoid  having 
to  do  with  him,  on  account  of  the  multitude 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


1 1 6 

of  his  continual  misfortunes.”  (Ptah-hotep, 
40.)  And  this  avoidance  of  fools  appears 
again  in  the  late  precept  “ Go  not  out  with  a 
foolish  man,  nor  stop  to  listen  to  his  words  ” 
(Precepts,  21,  22),  and  “ Do  not  according  to 
the  advice  of  a fool.”  (Precept  4.) 

48.  But,  perhaps,  greater  stress  is  laid 
upon  discretion  and  quietness  than  on  any 
other  qualities  of  character.  It  is  remark- 
able that  it  does  not  occur  at  all  in  the 
earlier  repudiation  of  sins,  but  is  very 
prominent  in  the  later ; in  that  we  find, 
“ My  mouth  hath  not  run  on  ” (B.  17) : “ My 
mouth  hath  not  been  hot"  (B.  23)  ; “ I have 
not  quarrelled”  (B.  29) ; “ My  voice  has  not 
been  voluble  in  my  speech”  (B.  33);  and 
“ My  voice  is  not  loud."  (B.  37.)  Here  five 
out  of  the  forty  pleas  of  goodness  turn  on  a 
single  quality,  which  would  hardly  appear  at 
all  in  a board-school  code  of  morals.  Yet  such 
are  the  virtues  requisite  for  the  blessed  fields 
of  Aalu  in  the  kingdom  of  Osiris.  This 
same  discreetness  is  urged  by  old  Ptah- 
hotep,  “ Let  thy  heart  be  overflowing,  but 
let  thy  mouth  be  restrained : consider  how 
thou  shalt  behave  among  the  nobles.  Be 
exact  in  practice  with  thy  master ; act  so 
that  he  shall  say,  ‘ The  son  of  that  man  shall 


THE  INNER  DUTIES  n 7 

speak  to  those  that  shall  hearken  ; praise- 
worthy also  is  he  who  formed  him.’  Apply 
thine  heart  while  thou  art  speaking,  that 
thou  mayest  speak  things  of  distinction ; 
then  the  nobles  who  shall  hear  will  say, 

‘ How  good  is  that  which  proceedeth  out  of 
his  mouth.’  ” (Ptah-hotep,  42.)  Later  on 
Antef  says,  “ I am  one  who  is  cool,  free 
of  hastiness  of  countenance,  knowing  results.” 
(2.)  And  Any  also  has  several  injunctions 
to  the  same  quietness.  “ Seek  silence  for 
thee.”  (Any,  62.)  “Go  not  into  the  crowd  if 
thou  findest  thyself  excited  in  the  presence 
of  violence.”  (Any,  49.)  “Of  what  shouldest 
thou  talk  daily  ? Let  officials  talk  of  their 
affairs,  a woman  talk  of  her  husband,  and 
every  man  talk  of  his  business.”  (Any,  30.) 
And  in  more  detail  he  says,  “ If  there  is 
enquiry,  increase  not  thy  words  ; in  keeping 
quiet  thou  wilt  do  best ; do  not  be  a talker” 
(Any,  10);  and  again,  “Guard  thyself  from 
sinning  in  words,  that  they  may  not  wound  ; 
a thing  to  be  condemned  in  the  breast  of 
man  is  malicious  gossip,  which  is  never  still. 
Discard  the  man  who  errs  (thus)  and  let  him 
not  be  thy  companion.”  (Any,  16.)  And  the 
repudiation  of  sins  also  brings  in  the  con- 
demnation of  gossip.  “ I have  not  been 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


118 

a tale-bearer  in  business  not  mine  own.” 
(B.  iS.) 

Extreme  reserve  is  inculcated  by  some 
writers.  Kagemni  says,  “ The  cautious  man 
succeeds,  the  accurate  man  is  praised,  to  the 
man  of  silence  (even)  the  sleeping  chamber 
is  opened.  Wide  scope  hath  he  who  is 
acquiescent  in  his  speech  ; knives  are  set 
against  him  who  forceth  his  way  wrongfully.” 
(Kagemni  i.)  Amenemhat  bitterly  remarks 
as  a precept  for  the  highest  station,  “ Man- 
kind turn  their  heart  to  him  who  inspireth 
them  with  fear : fill  not  thy  heart  with  a 
brother”  (Am.  ii.) ; and  again,  “Keep  to 
thyself  thy  own  heart,  for  friends  exist  not 
for  a man  on  the  day  of  troubles.”  (Am.  iii.) 
Such  cynical  reserve  was  not,  however,  the 
Egyptian  ideal,  but  it  was  what  they  pre- 
ferred at  least  to  weak  gossip. 

Covetousness  is  named  in  the  repudiation 
of  sins.  “I  have  not  been  covetous”  (B. 
3.) ; and  this  is  put  in  a more  concrete  form 
by  Any,  “ Fill  not  thy  heart  with  the  things 
of  another;  beware  of  this.  For  thy  own 
sake  go  not  near  the  things  of  another, 
unless  he  shows  them  himself  in  thy  house.” 
(Any,  24.) 

The  evil  of  presumption  and  pride 


was 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


1 19 

met  by  remarks  on  the  uncertainty  of  life. 
Kagemni  says : “ Let  not  thy  heart  be 

proud  for  valour  in  the  midst  of  thy  troops. 
Beware  of  overbearingness,  for  one  knoweth 
not  what  shall  happen,  or  what  a god  will 
do  when  he  striketh.”  (Kagemni,  5.)  And 
similarly  Ptah-hotep  begins  : “ Let  not  thy 
heart  be  great  because  of  thy  knowledge, 
but  converse  with  the  ignorant  as  with  the 
learned  ; for  the  limit  of  skill  is  not  attain- 
able, and  there  is  no  expert  who  is  completely 
provided  with  what  is  profitable  to  him. 
Good  speech  is  more  hidden  than  are  the 
precious  stones  sought  for  by  female  slaves 
amid  the  pebbles.”  (Ptah-hotep,  1.)  And 
more  picturesquely  does  Any  remark  on  the 
ever  changing  nature  of  things.  “ The 
water  courses  shifted  in  past  years,  and  will 
yet  again  the  next  year.  The  large  pools 
dry  up,  and  their  shores  become  deep  cracks. 
Nothing  comes  to  man  alike.  This  is  the 
reply  of  the  Mistress  of  Life.”  (Any,  43.) 
And  the  steadfast  unwavering  mind  that 
these  reflections  should  enlarge  is  held  up 
as  a heavenly  requisite  in  the  repudiation 
of  sins,  where  the  soul  asserts  “ I have  not 
given  way  to  anxious  care  ” (A.  8) ; and  “ I 
am  not  of  inconstant  mind”  (B.  31);  and 


120  THE  INNER  DUTIES 

again,  similarly,  “ I have  not  been  wretched.” 
(A.  n.) 

49.  But  beside  all  these  fortifying  maxims 
the  Egyptians  had  a keen  idea,  sometimes 
coming  to  the  surface,  that  virtue  was  not 
entirely  its  own  reward,  and  not  solely  an 
end  in  itself ; but  that  the  end  of  right  con- 
duct was  right  enjoyment.  Ptah  - hotep 
inculcated  this : “He  who  doth  accounts 
all  day  long  hath  not  a pleasant  moment ; 
and  yet  he  who  enjoyeth  himself  all  day 
long  doth  not  provide  for  his  house.  The 
archer  hitteth  his  mark,  and  so  doth  he  who 
steereth,  by  letting  it  alone  at  one  time  and 
pulling  at  another.  He  that  obeyeth  his 
heart  shall  command.”  (Ptah-hotep,  25 a.) 
And  again,  “ Follow  thy  heart  the  time  that 
thou  hast ; do  not  more  than  is  commanded. 
Diminish  not  the  time  of  following  the  heart, 
for  that  is  abomination  to  the  ka*  that  its 
moment  (opportunity  of  action)  should  be 
disregarded.  Spend  not  the  time  of  each 
day  beyond  what  is  needful  for  providing 
for  thy  house.  When  possessions  are 
obtained  follow  the  heart,  for  possessions 


* For  the  consideration  of  the  nature  of  the  ka,  as  shown 
here,  see  Note  D. 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


I 2 I 


are  not  made  of  full  use  if  (thou  art)  weary.” 
(Ptah-hotep,  io.)  And  the  song  of  the 
harper  more  freely  enjoins:  “Follow  thy 
heart  so  long  as  thou  existest  . . . enjoy 
thyself  beyond  measure,  let  not  thy  heart 
faint,  follow  thy  desire  and  thy  happiness 
while  thou  art  on  earth.”  Such  doctrine 
naturally  led  too  far,  as  when  a man  in 
Ptolemaic  times  ingeniously  places  in  his 
deceased  wife’s  mouth  on  her  tombstone 
the  commands  : “ Enjoy  the  love  of  women 
and  make  holiday.  . . . Thy  desire  to  drink 
and  to  eat  hath  not  ceased,  therefore  be 
drunken.”  But  occasional  intoxication  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  looked  on  very 
seriously,  perhaps,  just  because  it  was  so 
very  occasional ; in  the  tomb  of  Paheri 
(XVIIIth  Dynasty)  one  lady  at  the  party 
says  : “ Give  me  some  wine  for  I am  as  dry 
as  a straw  ” ; and  another,  approving  its 
quality,  adds,  “ I should  like  to  drink  to 
intoxication.” 

50.  We  may  then  sum  up  the  personal 
character  which  the  Egyptian  strove  for, 
and  even  considered  in  many  points  to  be 
essential  for  those  who  would  enter  into  the 
kingdom  of  Osiris.  He  should  be  strong, 
steadfast,  and  self-respecting ; active  and 


122 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


straightforward ; quiet  and  discreet ; and 
avoid  covetousness  and  presumption.  Yet 
with  all  this,  while  striving  for  the  highest 
character,  he  was  to  keep  the  use  of  life 
before  him  and  to  avoid  miserliness  or 
asceticism.  Other  qualities  which  we  value 
we  shall  notice  in  the  relations  to  other  men 
and  to  property ; but  so  far  as  the  solely 
personal  qualities  go  this  picture  of  the 
Egyptian  mind  is  as  fine  a basis  of  the 
principles  of  character  as  has  been  laid 
down  by  any  people.  But  yet  we  do  not 
find  any  trace  in  it  of  the  idea  of  sin,  which 
was  so  familiar  to  the  Hindus  in  early  times  ; 
the  Egyptian  is  the  rather  akin  to  the  Greek 
mind,  which  sought  out  a fair  and  noble  life 
without  introspection  or  self-reproach.  Yet 
the  more  personal  sense  is  seen  in  India 
even  as  early  as  the  Rig  Veda,  where  in 
the  hymns  to  Varuna  (Ouranos)  contempo- 
rary with  the  XVIIIth  Egyptian  Dynasty, 
or  earlier,  the  Hindu  said:  “O  Varuna! 
deliver  us  from  the  sins  of  our  fathers. 
Deliver  us  from  the  sins  committed  in  our 
persons  ...  all  this  sin  is  not  wilfully  com- 
mitted by  us.  Error  or  wine,  anger  or  dice, 
or  even  thoughtlessness,  has  begotten  sin. 
Even  an  elder  brother  leads  his  younger 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


123 


astray,  sin  is  begotten  even  in  our  dreams.”* 
And  soon  after,  between  the  XIXth  and 
XX  1st  Egyptian  Dynasties,  we  read  the 
Hindu  saying:  “When  confessed  the  sin 
becomes  less,  since  it  becomes  truth.”! 
Such  ideas,  however  familiar  to  us,  to  whom 
they  have  descended  by  way  of  Palestine, 
are,  however,  quite  foreign  to  the  Mediter- 
ranean conscience  met  with  in  Egypt  and 
in  Greece ; they  belong  essentially  to  the 
ascetic  mind  that  found  no  place  in  the 
compact  and  practical  frame  of  the  ex- 
cellencies of  the  early  Egyptian,  which  so 
closely  resembles  the  character  of  the  best 
of  the  modern  Egyptians. 

MATERIAL  WELFARE 

51.  Beside  the  maxims  of  entirely  per- 
sonal character  there  is  a body  of  injunctions 
relating  to  the  more  material  welfare  and 
conduct  which  may  be  considered  as  a separ- 
ate class.  Self-help  is  enjoined  by  Ptah- 
hotep  : “If  thou  ploughest  labour  steadily 
in  the  field,  that  god  may  make  it  great  in 
thy  hand.  Let  not  thy  mouth  be  filled  at 

* Rig  Veda  vii.  89. 

t Satapatha  Brahtnana  ii.  5,  2,  20. 


124 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


thy  neighbour’s  table.  . . . Verily  he  who 
possesseth  prudence  is  as  the  possessor  of 
good,  he  holcleth  like  a crocodile  from  the 
officials.  (He  does  not  get  into  trouble  and 
have  to  give  bribes.)  Beg  not  as  a poor  man 
from  him  who  is  without  children,  and  make 
no  boast  to  him  ; the  father  is  important 
even  when  the  mother  that  beareth  is  want- 
ing, for  another  woman  may  be  added  to 
her  ” (reckon  not  on  inheriting  from  a child- 
less man,  for  he  may  take  another  wife). 
(Ptah-hotep,  9.) 

Prudence  is  enjoined  by  Any  thus  : 
“ Keep  thine  eye  open  for  fear  that  thou 
shalt  go  begging  : there  is  no  man,  if  he  be 
often  lazy  (that  shall  escape  want)  ” (Any,  21), 
and  seizing  opportunities  also, — “ If  the  hour 
be  past,  one  seeks  to  save  another."  (Any,  4.) 

Reserve  and  not  trusting  to  others  appear 
also  in  Any’s  sayings,  “ Give  not  over-much 
freedom  to  a man  in  thy  house.  When  thou 
comest  in  and  thou  hearest  of  his  presence, 
thou  art  saluted  by  his  mouth,  thou  art  told 
of  his  purpose  and  talking  is  done  ” (Any, 
45) ; and  in  the  bitter  saying,  “ Thy  entering 
into  a village  begins  with  acclamations  ; at 
thy  going  out  thou  art  saved  by  thy  hand." 
(Any,  64.) 


THE  INNER  DUTIES  125 

A curious  piece  of  worldly  wisdom  lies  in 
the  advice  to  imitate  successful  men.  “ If 
thou  failest,  follow  a successful  man  ; let  all 
thy  conduct  be  good  before  god.  When 
thou  knowest  that  a small  man  hath  advanced, 
let  not  thine  heart  be  proud  toward  him  by 
reason  of  what  thou  knowest  of  him  ; to  a 
man  who  hath  advanced  be  respectful  in 
proportion  to  what  hath  arrived  to  him,  for 
behold  things  do  not  come  of  themselves,  it 
is  their  law  for  those  whom  they  love.  Verily 
he  who  hath  risen  he  hath  been  prudent  for 
himself ; it  is  god  that  maketh  his  success, 
and  he  would  punish  him  if  he  were  in- 
dolent.” (Ptah-hotep,  10.)  “Always  do 
business  with  lucky  people,”  is  a well-known 
modern  maxim. 

Of  the  value  of  knowledge,  above  the 
power  of  connections  and  influence,  Any 
speaks  thus : “If  thou  art  able  in  the 
writings,  having  penetrated  into  the  writings, 
put  them  in  thy  heart,  then  all  that  thou 
sayest  will  be  perfected.  If  a scribe  is 
employed  in  any  profession  he  speaks  accord- 
ing to  the  writings  (Precedents!).  There  is 
no  son  to  the  chief  of  the  treasury,  there  is 
no  heir  to  the  chief  of  the  seal  (such  officer 
must  be  fitted  by  ability  and  not  by  influ- 


126 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


ence).  The  great  appreciate  the  scribe,  and 
his  hand  is  his  profession  and  cannot  be  given 
to  children  ; their  misery  (of  the  great)  is 
his  good,  their  greatness  is  his  protection.” 
(35.)  It  is  familiar  to  us  how  true  this  last 
sentence  is  of  our  scribes,  the  lawyers.  But 
to  feel  the  force  of  this  let  us  turn  to  a com- 
munity in  which  the  scribe  is  in  full  sway. 
Writing  of  Emin  Pasha’s  officials,  Mr. 
Jephson  says,  “These  soldiers  were  so 
foolish  ; again  and  again  they  found  them- 
selves tricked  by  the  clerks.  . . . The 
Egyptian  clerks  held  the  whole  of  these 
ignorant  Sudani  officers  and  men  in  their 

o 

hands ; they  wrote  all  sorts  of  things,  to 
which  the  Sudanis,  who  could  neither  read 
nor  write,  put  their  seals.” 

A conciliatory  and  peaceable  manner  was 
much  valued  ; but  all  the  injunctions  come 
from  Any  in  the  XIXth  Dynasty,  and  none 
from  earlier  times.  “ As  the  inside  of  man 
is  like  a granary,  full  of  all  kinds  of  replies, 
choose  to  thee  the  good,  speak  well,  as 
there  is  abomination  within  thee.  To  reply 
violently  is  as  lifting  a stick.  But  speak  with 
the  sweetness  of  a lover.  ...”  (37.)  “ One 

doth  not  get  good  things  when  one  saith  evil 
things.”  (28.)  “ Lift  not  up  thy  heart  over 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


127 


the  dissipated  man  so  that  he  can  find  speech 
(against  thee).  The  statements  of  thy  mouth 
go  round  quickly  if  thou  repeat  them.  Do 
not  make  enemies  ; the  ruin  of  a man  is  in 
his  tongue  ; guard  thyself  that  thou  make  no 
loss.”  (36.)  “ Do  not  talk  folly  to  all  who 

come ; the  word  of  the  day  of  the  gossiping 
will  turn  thy  house  upside  down.”  (31.) 
“ Hold  thyself  far  from  rebels.  He  whose 
heart  controls  his  mouth  amongst  the  soldiers 
will  certainly  not  be  taken  to  the  courts,  nor 
be  bound,  nor  know  that  which  conciliates 
(presents).”  (51.) 

Covetousness  is  the  fault  particularly 
noted  by  Ptah-hotep,  and  he  reminds  one 
painfully  of  the  failing  of  the  present  Egyp- 
tian, “If  thou  desirest  thy  going  to  be 
good,  take  thyself  from  all  evil,  beware  of 
any  covetous  aim.  That  is  as  the  painful 
disease  of  colic.  He  who  entereth  on  it 
is  not  successful.  It  embroileth  fathers  and 
mothers  with  the  mother’s  brothers,  it  sepa- 
rateth  wife  and  husband.  It  is  a thing  that 
taketh  to  itself  all  evils,  a bundle  of  all 
wickedness.  A man  liveth  long  whose  rule 
is  justice,  who  goeth  according  to  its  move- 
ments. He  maketh  a property  thereby, 
while  a covetous  man  hath  no  house.”  (19.) 


128 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


Any  remarks  more  on  the  need  of  not  ex- 
pecting to  get  the  best  of  things.  “ Build 
thyself  a house  if  thou  dislike  to  live  in 
common.  Do  not  say  ‘ This  is  a part  of  the 
house  which  has  come  to  me  by  inheritance 
from  my  father  and  my  mother  who  are  in 
the  tomb  ’ : for  if  thou  comest  to  divide  it 
with  thy  brother  thy  part  will  be  the  store- 
rooms.” (25.) 

Commercial  credit  was  much  valued,  more 
than  we  should  expect  in  such  a community. 
“ Know  thy  tradesmen,  for  when  thy  affairs 
are  unsuccessful  thy  good  reputation  with 
thy  friends  is  a channel  well  filled,  it  is  more 
important  than  a man’s  wealth.  The  pro- 
perty of  one  belongeth  to  another.  A 
profitable  thing  is  the  good  reputation  of  a 
man’s  son  to  him.  The  nature  is  better 
than  the  memory  (acquirements).”  (Ptah- 
hotep,  35.) 

The  avoidance  of  drink  and  of  luxury  is 
dwelt  on  at  length  by  Any,  and  was,  doubt- 
less, a needful  warning  in  the  XIXth 
Dynasty.  “ Do  not  be  engrossed  in  the 
house  where  beer  is  drunk  ; for  it  is  evil  that 
words  of  another  meaning  come  from  thy 
mouth  without  thy  being  aware  of  having 
said  them, — and  that  in  falling  thy  limbs  are 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


129 


broken  without  any  person  having  laid  hand 
on  thee, — and  that  thy  boon  companions  get 
up  and  say  ‘Turn  out  this  drunkard,’ — and 
when  one  comes  to  blame  thee  they  find 
thee  lying  on  the  ground  like  a little  child.” 
(13.)  And  of  the  more  refined  pleasures 
he  says,  “ There  has  been  made  for  thee  a 
feasting-place  ; the  hedges  have  been  put  for 
thee  around  that  which  has  been  cultivated 
by  the  hoe  for  thee  ; there  have  been  planted 
for  thee  in  the  inner  parts  sycomores,  which 
join  all  the  lands  belonging  to  thy  house  ; 
thou  fillest  thy  hand  with  all  flowers  which 
thine  eye  sees.  And  one  becomes  weakened 
in  the  midst  of  all  these,  and  happy  is  he 
who  shall  not  abandon  them.”  (Any,  23.) 

52.  Lastly,  the  uncertainty  of  life  is 
strongly  urged  by  Any.  “ Put  this  aim 
before  thee,  to  reach  a worthy  old  age,  so 
that  thou  may  be  found  to  have  completed 
thy  house  which  is  in  the  funereal  valley, 
on  the  morning  of  burying  thy  body.  Put 
this  before  thee  in  all  the  business  which 
thine  eye  considers.  When  thou  shalt  be 
thus  an  old  man,  thou  shalt  he  down  in  the 
midst  of  them.  There  shall  be  no  surprise 
to  him  who  does  well,  he  is  prepared  ; thus 
when  the  messenger  shall  come  to  take  thee, 

1 


130 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


he  shall  find  one  who  is  ready.  Verily,  thou 
shalt  not  have  time  to  speak,  for  when  he 
comes  it  shall  be  suddenly.  Do  not  say, 
like  a young  man,  ‘ Take  thine  ease,  for  thou 
shalt  not  know  death.’  When  death  cometh 
he  will  seize  the  infant  who  is  in  its  mother’s 
arms  as  he  does  him  who  has  made  an  old 
age.  Behold  I have  now  told  thee  excellent 
things  to  be  considered  in  thy  heart,  do  them 
and  thou  shalt  become  a good  man  and  all 
evils  shall  be  far  from  thee.”  (Any,  15.) 

Thus  the  main  points  of  character  in  ex- 
ternal matters  were  self-help,  prudence,  and 
respect  for  success  ; the  value  of  knowledge, 
and  of  conciliation  and  fair  speech  for  a hold 
on  other  men  ; avoiding  the  taint  of  covetous- 
ness, and  keeping  good  credit ; not  being 
tied  by  mere  pleasures,  and  being  always 
ready  to  resign  life.  In  all  this  the  ancient 
Egyptian  is  much  like  the  modern  fellah  ; 
both  accept  their  place  in  the  world  readily, 
and  enjoy  it  quietly  without  being  over- 
weighted by  duty.  Neither  of  these  know 
anything  of  the  Western  sense  of  the  terrible 
responsibilities  of  life,  and  the  tyranny  of  the 
conscience.  They  simply  enjoy  living  with- 
out being  too  particular,  and  lay  great  stress 
on  making  it  as  pleasant  as  possible  to  other 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


13 1 

people.  Their  aim  was  to  be  easy,  good- 
natured,  quiet  gentlemen,  who  made  life  as 
agreeable  as  they  could  all  round.  And 
though  the  ideal  was  not  a very  high  one, 
it  was  not  bad  for  a warm  climate  ; and  it 
may  compare  well  with  the  actual  practice 
of  our  own  land  or  any  other. 


FAMILY  DUTIES 

53.  The  position  of  women  was  always  an 
important  one  in  Egypt,  as  the  social  system 
was  matriarchal  in  the  early  times,  and  con- 
tinued to  place  property  in  the  hands  of 
women  throughout  the  history.  Even  the 
strongly  patriarchal  Roman  law  and  the 
power  of  Islam  did  not  root  out  this,  as  in 
Makrisi’s  time  a Copt  always  said,  in  selling 
anything,  “with  my  wife’s  permission”  ; and 
to  the  present  time  in  Upper  Egypt  women 
are  the  treasurers  and  misers  of  the  house- 
hold. Yet  the  relation  was  apparently  much 
on  the  same  footing  as  other  business,  and 
has  little  of  the  family  character ; nor  did 
it  produce  any  large  number  of  precepts. 

Throughout  all  the  earlier  history  a woman 
who  had  property  was  always  mistress  of  the 


132 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


house,  and  her  husband  was  a sort  of  boarder 
or  visitor,  who  had  to  keep  up  the  establish- 
ment. This  is  seen  even  in  the  XIXth 
Dynasty,  where  Any  writes,  “ Be  not  rude 
to  a woman  in  her  house  if  thou  know  her 
thoroughly.  Do  not  say,  ‘ Where  is  that  ? 
bring  it  to  me,’  when  she  hath  put  it  in  its 
right  place,  and  thine  eye  hath  seen  it;  when 
thou  art  silent  thou  knowest  her  qualities, 
and  it  is  a joy  for  thine  hand  to  be  with  her. 
There  are  many  who  understand  not  how  a 
man  should  act  if  he  wish  to  bring  misfortune 
into  her  house,  and  who  know  not  how  to 
find  out  her  conduct  in  all  ways.  The  man 
who  is  strong  of  heart  is  soon  master  in 
her  house.”  (Any,  56.)  And  even  in  the 
Ptolemaic  times  marriage  contracts  made 
over  all  possible  property  of  the  man  entirely 
to  the  woman. 

In  most  nations,  however,  there  have  been 
several  legal  forms  of  marriage  side  by  side  ; 
in  ancient  India  and  in  Roman  law  this  was 
conspicuous.  Probably  the  same  diversity 
existed  in  Egypt,  depending  on  the  question 
of  whether  the  woman  had  property  of  her 
own  to  begin  with.  In  Ptah-hotep  we  find: 
“ If  thou  art  successful  and  hast  furnished 
thy  house  and  lovest  the  wife  of  thy  bosom, 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


133 


then  fill  her  stomach  and  clothe  her  back. 
The  medicine  for  her  body  is  oil.  Make 
glad  her  heart  during  the  time  that  thou 
hast.  She  is  a field  profitable  to  its  owner.” 
(21.)  In  later  times  the  Ptolemaic  precepts 
say,  “ May  it  not  happen  to  thee  to  maltreat 
thy  wife,  whose  strength  is  less  than  thine  ; 
but  may  she  find  in  thee  a protector.”  (Pre- 
cepts, 8.)  Here  the  husband  is  presumed  to 
be  independent,  and  to  be  master. 

Irregularities  are  considered  by  Ptah-hotep 
to  demand  at  least  compensatory  kindness. 
“ If  thou  makest  a woman  ashamed,  wanton 
of  heart,  whom  her  fellow  townspeople  know 
to  be  under  two  laws  (in  an  ambiguous 
position) ; be  kind  to  her  for  a season,  send 
her  not  away,  let  her  have  food  to  eat. 
The  wantonness  of  her  heart  appreciateth 
a straight  path.”  (Ptah-hotep,  37.)  But  he 
warns  most  strongly  against  a corrupt  life. 
“ If  thou  wishest  to  prolong  friendship  in  a 
house  into  which  thou  enterest  as  master, 
as  brother,  as  friend,  in  any  place  that  thou 
enterest  beware  of  approaching  to  women  ; 
no  place  in  which  that  is  done  prospereth. 
The  face  is  not  watchful  in  attaining  it 
(pleasures)  ; a thousand  men  are  injured  in 
order  to  be  profited  for  a little  moment,  like 


134 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


a dream,  by  tasting  which  death  is  reached.” 
(Ptah-hotep,  18.)  Any  similarly  says,  “Follow 
not  after  a woman,  and  allow  not  that  she 
occupy  thy  heart.”  (Any,  57.)  And  of  the 
wandering  professional  he  says,  “ Keep  thy- 
self from  the  strange  woman,  who  is  not 
known  in  her  town.  Look  not  on  her  when 
she  cometh,  and  know  her  not,  and  fill  not 
thy  heart  with  her.  She  is  a whirlpool  in 
deep  water,  the  vortex  of  which  is  not 
known.  The  woman  whose  husband  is 
afar  writeth  to  thee  daily ; when  none  is 
there  to  see  her  she  standeth  and  spreadeth 
her  snare  ; sin  unto  death  it  is  to  hearken 
thereto,  even  when  she  shall  not  have  ac- 
complished her  plan  in  reality.  Men  do  all 
crimes  for  this  alone.”  (Any,  8.) 

In  the  qualifications  for  the  kingdom  of 
Osiris  the  moral  law  was  early  laid  down. 
In  the  earlier  repudiation  it  appears  to  be 
only  a trespass  against  the  sacred  property, 
“ I have  not  committed  fornication  nor 
impurity,  in  what  was  sacred  to  the  god 
of  my  city.”  (A.  22.)  But  in  the  later 
repudiation  this  is  divided  into  three 
general  propositions.  “ I have  not  com- 
mitted adultery  with  another  man’s  wile  ” 
(B.  19);  “I  have  not  been  impure” 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


i35 


(B.  20) ; “ I have  not  been  given  to  un- 
natural lust.”  (B.  27.) 

54.  Of  the  parental  and  filial  duties  there 
is  not  much  said,  compared  with  the  space 
they  fill  in  the  systems  of  the  further  east. 
There  is  not  a single  condition  laid  down 
on  these  duties  in  the  judgment  before 
Osiris ; and  according  to  these  earliest 
codes  a man  had  no  stronger  duties  to  his 
parents  than  to  any  other  persons.  The 
early  moralists,  however,  treat  of  such 
duties  to  some  extent,  but  they  again 
almost  disappear  in  the  later  writers.  As 
compared  with  the  code  of  harsher  climates 
this  may  be  due  to  the  small  amount  of 
cost  and  care  of  children  ; and  as  compared 
with  other  eastern  lands,  the  provision  of 
offerings  in  semblance  by  the  Egyptians  in 
the  tomb  left  little  place  for  the  urgency 
of  filial  duties  in  maintaining  continual 
supplies  for  the  deceased.  It  is  at  least 
a curious  lack,  contrary  to  what  might  be 
expected  in  the  Egyptian  code.  We  read 
in  Kagemni  of  the  “man  devoid  of 
sociability,”  that  he  is  “rude  to  his  mother 
and  to  his  people”  (Kagemni,  4);  and  the 
late  Precepts  echo  this,  “ Make  it  not  in 
the  heart  of  a mother  to  enter  into  bitter- 


136 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


ness.”  (y.)  And  in  Any  we  specially  read 
of  the  long  cares  of  a mother,  and  the 
consequent  duty  to  do  the  same  for  the 
next  generation.  (Any,  40.)  He  enjoins 
the  duty  of  funeral  offerings  : “ Offer  water 
to  thy  father  and  thy  mother  who  rest  in 
the  valley  (of  tombs) ; see  to  the  water, 
and  offer  the  divine  thing's  which  are  said 
to  be  acceptable.  Forget  it  not  when  thou 
art  far  off ; if  thou  dost  this  thy  son  shall 
also  do  the  same  for  thee.”  (Any,  12.) 

The  value  of  paternal  precepts  is  also 
dwelt  on.  “If  the  son  of  a man  receive 
what  his  father  saith,  no  plan  of  his  shall 
fail.  He  whom  thou  teachest  as  thy  son, 
or  the  listener  that  is  successful  in  the  heart 
of  the  nobles,  he  guideth  his  mouth  accord- 
ing to  what  he  hath  been  told  ....  He 
faileth  that  entereth  without  hearing.  He 
that  knoweth,  on  the  next  day  is  estab- 
lished ; he  who  is  ignorant  is  crushed.” 
(Ptah-hotep,  39.)  “The  son  that  hearkeneth 
is  a follower  of  Horus  ; there  is  good  for 
him  when  he  hath  hearkened  ; he  groweth 
old,  he  reacheth  amakh , he  telleth  the  like 
to  his  children,  renewing  the  teaching  of 
his  father.  Every  man  teacheth  as  he  hath 
performed ; he  telleth  the  like  to  his 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


137 


sons  that  they  may  tell  it  again  to  their 
children.”  (Ptah-hotep,  41.)  “ Do  according 

to  that  which  thy  master  telleth  thee.  How 
excellent  to  a man  is  the  teaching  of  his 
father,  out  of  whom  he  hath  come,  out 
of  his  very  body,  and  who  spoke  unto  him 
while  he  was  yet  altogether  in  his  loins. 
Greater  is  what  hath  been  done  unto  him, 
than  what  hath  been  said  unto  him.  Behold 
a good  son  that  god  giveth  doeth  beyond 
what  he  is  told  for  his  master ; he  doeth 
right,  doing  heartily,  even  as  thou  hast  come 
unto  me  . . . .”  (Ptah-hotep,  43.)  The 
inheritance  of  qualities,  and  their  importance 
above  education,  is  here  well  marked. 

The  duties  to  the  children  are  also  en- 
forced. Any  says,  “ Take  to  thyself  a wife 
when  young,  that  she  may  give  thee  a son  ; 
being  thine,  a child  to  thee,  when  thou  art 
a young  man,  is  a witness  that  this  is  a 
good  man’s  deed,  of  one  whom  many  will 
praise  the  more  for  his  son.”  (1.)  And 
Ptah-hotep  says,  “If  thou  art  a successful 
man,  and  thou  makest  a son  by  god’s 
grace,  if  he  is  accurate,  goeth  again  in  thy 
way,  and  attendeth  to  thy  business  on  the 
proper  occasion,  do  unto  him  every  good 
thing,  for  he  is  thy  own  son,  to  whom  it 


138 


THE  INNER  DUTIES 


belongeth  that  thy  ka  begat ; estrange  not 
thy  heart  from  him.”  (Ptah-hotep,  12.)  And 
in  the  late  precepts  the  duties  and  care  for 
sons  are  also  repeated,  though  the  strong 
notion  of  continuity  of  family  occupation 
and  tradition  seems  to  have  gone.  “ May 
it  not  happen  to  thee  to  cause  thy  infant 
to  suffer  if  he  be  weak,  but  assist  him.” 
(Precepts,  14.)  “ Do  not  abandon  one  son 

to  another  of  thy  sons,  who  is  stronger 
or  more  courageous.”  (Precepts,  15.)  And 
this  control  extended  into  maturity,  for  we 
read,  “ Do  not  allow  thy  son  to  be  familiar 
with  a married  woman.”  (Precepts,  18.) 


LECTURE  VII. 

THE  OUTER  DUTIES 

RELATIONS  TO  EQUALS 

55.  The  more  general  duties  to  equals 
occupy  a large  part  of  the  repudiation  of 
sins.  The  earlier  list  says,  “ I have  not 
murdered”  (A.  16),  and  “I  have  not  com- 
manded murder”  (A.  17);  and  the  second 
list  states,  “ I have  not  slain  men.”  (B.  5.) 
In  the  late  precepts  there  appears  the  higher 
command,  “ Do  not  save  thy  life  at  the  cost 
of  that  of  another.”  (Precepts,  12.) 

The  general  statement  with  which  the 
earlier  repudiation  opens,  “ I have  not  done 
injury  to  men  ” (A.  1 ),  is  amplified  into  several 
different  declarations  in  the  later  list.  “ I 
have  not  done  injustice”  (B.  1)  opens  the 
second  list,  and  further  it  declares,  “ I have 
not  robbed”  (B.  2),  “I  have  not  stolen” 
(B.  14  and  15),  “ I have  not  been  a pilferer.” 
(B.  16.)  Special  forms  of  dishonesty  are 


139 


140 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


detailed  : “ I have  not  added  to  nor 

diminished  the  measures  of  grain  (A.  23), 
and  in  the  second  list,  “ I have  not  diminished 
the  corn  measure”  (B.  6),  “I  have  not 
diminished  the  palm  measure  ” (A.  24),  “ I 
have  not  falsified  the  cubit  of  land”  (A.  25), 
“ I have  not  added  to  the  weight  of  the 
balance”  (A.  26),  “I  have  not  nullified  the 
plummet  of  the  scales.”  (A.  26#.)  The  sins 
of  Egyptian  agriculture  are  named  : “I  have 
not  stopped  water  in  its  season”  (A.  31),  “I 
have  not  dammed  running  water.”  (A  32.) 

A very  strange  repudiation  next  appears 
which  seems  as  if  fire  was  looked  on  as 
having  a separate  being.  “ I have  not 
quenched  fire  in  its  moment,”  i.e.  when 
burning  up.  (A.  33.)  Possibly  fire  was 

looked  on  as  a portion  of  the  sun-god,  who 
would  be  offended  at  being  thwarted. 

The  earlier  repudiation  does  not  name 
falsehood,  but  the  later  says,  “ I have  not 
spoken  falsehood”  (B.  9),  and  “I  have  not 
deceived  nor  done  ill.”  (B.  34.) 

56.  Consideration  for  others  is  strongly 
put  forward.  “ Look  not  a second  time  on 
what  thine  eye  has  seen  in  thine  house ; and 
being  silent  do  not  let  it  be  openly  spoken 
of  by  another.”  (Any,  7.)  In  the  second 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES  141 

repudiation  of  sins  we  find,  “ I have  not 
made  (unjust)  preferences”  (B.  40),  “ I have 
not  played  the  rich  man,  except  in  my  own 
things”  (B.  41),  “I  am  not  of  an  aggressive 
hand.”  (B.  30.)  Antef  claims,  “ I am  one  that 
smooths  difficulties,  respecting  (?)  a name, 
divining  (?)  what  is  in  the  heart  ” (3).  “ I am 

one  prudent  in  preventing  and  easing,  quiet- 
ing the  mourner  with  pleasant  speech  ” (4). 

Liberality  was  enjoined,  as  in  the  Song  of 
the  Harper  to  Neferhotep,  “Give  bread  to 
him  who  is  without  a plot  of  land  ” ; and  the 
second  repudiation  has,  “ I have  not  been 
niggardly  in  grain.”  (B.  14.)  While  Ptah- 
hotep  requires  that  liberality  should  be 
genial — “ Let  thy  face  be  shining  the  time 
that  thou  hast  for  a feast ; verily  that  which 
cometh  out  of  the  store-chamber  doth  not  go 
back  again,  but  is  bread  for  apportionment ; 
and  he  that  is  niggardly  is  an  accuser,  empty 
is  his  belly.”  (Ptah-hotep,  34.) 

The  general  duties  of  goodwill  and  kind- 
ness to  men  are  often  repeated.  In  the 
earlier  repudiation  we  find,  “ I have  not 
caused  suffering  to  men”  (A.  18),  “I  have 
not  done  mischief”  (A.  5)  ; while  in  the  later 
list  this  is  repeated  as  “I  have  not  caused 
weeping”  (B.  26),  “ I have  not  made  a dis- 


142 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


turbance  ” (B.  21),  “I  have  not  borne  a 
grudge  ” (B.  28).  Violent  and  harsh  con- 
duct is  specially  condemned  by  the 
moralists,  “ Make  not  terror  amongst 
men,  god  punisheth  the  like  . . . never 
did  violence  prosper.”  (Ptah-hotep,  6.)  And 
“If  thy  conciliatory  speech  is  good,  they 
shall  incline  the  heart  to  take  it.”  (Any,  61.) 
“ I am  good,  not  hasty  of  countenance,  not 
pulling  a man  headlong,”  (?)  says  Antef.  (16.) 
“ Let  no  punishment  be  done  when  a noble 
is  busy  ; do  not  depress  the  heart  of  him 
that  is  already  laden.”  (Ptah-hotep,  26.) 
This  last  maxim  gives  a good  view  of  the 
Egyptian  attitude  of  mind  towards  punish- 
ments ; they  were  no  vindictive  pleasure  to 
the  Egyptians,  on  the  contrary  they  gave 
a sympathetic  pain  to  them,  and  the  sight 
was  so  unpleasant  and  depressing  that  it 
should  be  postponed  rather  than  annoy  a 
high  official  who  was  already  worried  with 
business.  It  may  be  doubted  if  any  ancient 
people  have  had  such  an  aversion  to  causing 
pain  or  distress  as  is  shown  by  the  genial 
and  kindly  upper  classes  of  the  Vth  Dynasty. 
It  is  the  very  antithesis  of  the  Greek 
slaughter  of  prisoners,  the  Roman  games, 
or  the  patristic  hell. 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


143 


The  precepts  of  friendship  are  what  might 
be  expected  in  such  a society  : kindly  and 
prudent,  but  without  any  passionate  depth 
of  feeling.  “It  befalleth  that  a quarrelsome 
man  is  a spoiler  of  things  : be  not  thus  to 
him  who  cometh  to  thee  ; the  remembrance 
of  a man  is  of  his  kindliness  in  the  years 
after  the  staff.”  (Ptah-hotep,  34.)  “ Useful 

are  the  doings  of  a friend  (if  he)  purify  him- 
self from  evils,  (then)  thou  shalt  be  safe  from 
his  being  lost ; (therefore)  beware  of  any  loss 
(of  friendship).”  (Any,  52.)  And  in  the  late 
precepts  of  a base  society  it  was  enjoined, 
“ Do  not  pervert  the  heart  of  thy  acquaint- 
ance if  he  be  pure.”  (Precept,  23.)  While 
caution  in  friendship  was  noted  very  early. 
“ If  thou  seekest  the  character  of  a friend, 
mind  thou  do  not  ask  (of  others) ; go  to 
him,  occupy  thyself  with  him  alone,  so  as 
not  to  interfere  with  his  business ; argue 
with  him  after  a season,  test  his  heart  with 
an  instance  of  speech.”  (Ptah-hotep,  33.) 

57.  The  position  of  a leading  man  is  dwelt 
on  by  Ptah-hotep.  “If  thou  art  strong, 
inspiring  awe  by  knowledge  or  by  pleasing, 
speak  in  first  command  ; that  is  to  say,  not 
according  to  (another’s)  lead.  The  weak  man 
entereth  into  error.  Raise  not  thine  heart 


144 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


lest  it  should  be  cast  clown.  Be  not  silent. 
Beware  of  interruption  and  of  answering 
words  with  heat.  The  flames  of  a fiery 
heart  sweep  away  the  mild  man  when  a 
fighter  treadeth  on  his  path.”  (Ptah-hotep, 
25.)  Antef  says,  “ I am  a speaker  in  the 
house  of  justice,  of  ready  mouth  in  the 
difficulties  of  heart.”  (20.)  “ If  thou  art 

a guide,  commanding  the  conduct  of  a com- 
pany, seek  for  thyself  every  good  aim,  so 
that  thy  policy  may  be  without  error.  A 
great  thing  is  justice,  enduring  and  surviv- 
ing.” (Ptah-hotep,  5.)  “I  am  accurate  like 
the  balance,  weighing  truth  like  Thoth,” 
says  Antef.  (17.)  “Do  not  take  a haughty 
attitude,”  is  said  in  the  Ptolemaic  precepts. 
(24-) 

The  business  of  the  council  of  the  district 
was  an  important  part  of  the  life  of  a well- 
born Egyptian  ; it  was  the  main  field  for  the 
use  of  most  of  the  social  qualities,  much 
what  the  modern  meglis  is  among  the  shekhs 
of  an  Egyptian  town,  or  the  bench  of  Justices 
of  the  Peace  in  England.  We  have  already 
noticed  allusions  to  qualities  at  the  council, 
and  some  injunctions  relate  entirely  to  such 
affairs.  “ If  thou  art  a successful  man  sitting 
in  the  council  of  his  lord,  confine  thine 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


145 


heart  to  what  promiseth  success.  That  thou 
shouldest  be  silent  is  better  than  that  thy 
speech  should  run  wild.  Thou  knowest 
what  thou  understandest.  It  is  an  expert 
that  speaketh  in  the  council.  Ill  to  bear 
is  speaking  of  every  kind  of  work.  It  is 
one  that  understandeth  it  that  putteth  it  to 
the  stick.”  (Ptah-hotep,  24.)  “ If  thou 

actest  as  the  son  of  a man  upon  the 
council,  a messenger  to  persuade  the 
people.  ...  do  not  tend  to  favour  one 
side.  Beware  lest  it  be  said  ‘ His  method 
is  that  of  the  nobles,  he  giveth  speech 
favouring  one  side  therein.’  Turn  thine 
aim  unto  an  even  balance.”  (Ptah-hotep, 
28.)  “If  thou  findest  a debater  in  his 
moment,  a poor  man,  not  thine  equal,  let 
not  thine  heart  leap  out  upon  him  when  he 
is  feeble.  Let  him  alone,  let  him  refute 
himself,  question  him  not  over -much.” 
(Ptah-hotep,  4)  : a saying  that  reminds  us 
of  George  Herbert’s  : 

“ Fierceness  makes 
Error  a fault,  and  truth  discourtesy.” 

Lastly,  convivial  conduct  has  its  duties 
laid  down  by  one  of  the  earliest  moralists, 
Kagemni.  “ If  thou  sittest  at  meat  with  a 

K 


146 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


company,  hate  the  bread  that  thou  desirest, 
for  it  is  but  a little  moment.  Restrain 
appetite,  for  gluttony  is  base.  It  is  a base 
fellow  who  is  mastered  by  his  belly,  who 
passeth  time  without  thought,  free  ranging 
for  his  feeding  in  their  houses.  But  be  not 
afraid  of  meat  in  company  with  the  greedy, 
take  what  he  giveth  thee,  refuse  it  not, 
thinking  that  it  will  honour  him.  If  there 
be  a man  devoid  of  making  himself  known, 
on  whom  no  word  hath  power  ....  every 
one  crieth,  ‘ Let  thy  name  come  forth,  thou 
art  silent  with  the  mouth  when  spoken  to.’  ” 
(Kagemni,  2,  3,  4.) 


RELATIONS  TO  SUPERIORS 

58.  Strange  to  say  not  a single  duty  to 
superiors  appears  in  the  great  repudiation 
of  sins.  The  total  absence  of  family  duties 
and  those  to  superiors  in  these  primitive 
categories  may  possibly  lead  us  to  the  view 
that  neither  family  nor  superiors  existed  in 
the  early  period  of  society  to  which  these 
lists  belong.  It  would  be  quite  possible  that 
in  the  matriarchal  society  the  permanent  bond 
of  the  family  was  not  looked  on  as  entailing 
duties  different  in  kind  to  those  equally  due 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


147 


to  relatives  and  neighbours  in  general. 
And  it  would  be  also  possible  that  in  a 
population  of  independent  farmers  without 
any  central  organization,  or  need  of  com- 
bining against  foes,  the  upper  class  for 
whom  such  formularies  were  prepared  had 
practically  no  superiors  to  whom  they  owed 
duties.  Very  likely  the  eldest  or  most  able 
farmer  of  a district  would  be  a sort  of 
leader  ; but  practically  a council  of  the  land- 
owners  of  the  neighbourhood  might  be  the 
only  authority,  and  no  obligations  to  any 
superiors  of  these  would  exist.  Certainly  in 
the  historical  ages  of  the  Vth  and  XIXth 
Dynasties  the  family  duties  are  far  more 
lightly  touched  on  than  we  should  expect, 
and  there  is  none  of  that  clannish  sense 
of  solidarity  which  is  the  basis  of  society 
to  western  peoples ; while  the  duties  to 
superiors  are  not  so  frequently  named  as  the 
duties  to  inferiors.  The  absence  of  certain 
classes  of  feeling  and  ideas  may  often  show 
us  more  than  the  presence  of  particular 
injunctions. 

The  duty  of  respect  to  old  age  is  of 
course  one  of  the  most  obvious  to  many 
different  races.  Yet  we  do  not  find  this 
enjoined  in  the  earlier  sayings,  but  only  in 


148 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


Ptolemaic  times.  “ Mock  not  the  venerable 
man  who  is  thy  superior.”  (Precept  25.) 
“ May  it  happen  to  thee  to  respect  the 
venerable.”  (Precept  7.)  And  the  master 
is  equally  to  be  regarded.  “ Curse  not  thy 
master  before  god.”  (Precept  9.)  “ Do  not 

speak  against  thy  master.”  (Precept  10.) 
And,  earlier  than  that,  age  was  to  be  re- 
spected more  than  position.  “ Do  not  thou 
sit  when  another  is  standing  who  is  older 
than  thee,  even  if  thou  art  greater  than  he 
in  his  office.”  (Any,  27.) 

Maxims  for  servants  are  also  given  by 
Any.  “He  who  hates  laziness  comes  with- 
out being  called.”  (46.)  “When  none  call 
him  the  runner  comes.”  (47.)  “ Reply  not 

to  a superior  who  is  annoyed,  wait  on  one 
side  ; speak  softly  when  he  speaks  in  anger, 
this  remedy  appeases  his  heart.”  (58.) 

The  relations  of  subordinates  to  nobles 
occupy  much  notice.  The  semi-domestic 
staff  of  business  agents  attached  to  the 
household  of  the  wealthy  chief  of  a district, 
is  well  known  even  under  the  civilized 
government  of  the  present  day ; but  when 
the  bonds  of  order  in  Egypt  were  far 
slacker  than  now,  when  each  petty  chief, 
or  big  shekh,  was  responsible  for  the 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


149 


peace  of  his  district  and  for  its  taxes  to  the 
king,  with  unlimited  powers  for  keeping 
order  in  his  hands,  these  staffs  of  servants 
really  included  the  police,  taxgatherers,  ac- 
countants, and  district  surveyors  of  the  petty 
jurisdiction  of  their  lord.  Hence  they  were 
a numerous  and  important  class,  in  fact  the 
bureaucracy  of  the  country.  Ptah-hotep 
enjoins,  “If  thou  art  a man  of  those  who 
sit  at  the  place  of  a greater  man  than  thyself 
take  what  he  giveth  ....  thou  shalt  look 
at  what  is  before  thee  : pierce  him  not  with 
many  glances,  it  is  abomination  to  the  ka  for 
them  to  be  directed  at  him.  Speak  not  unto 
him  until  he  calleth,  one  knoweth  not  the 
evil  (or  sorrow)  at  heart ; thou  shalt  speak 
when  he  questioneth  thee,  and  so  what 
thou  sayest  will  be  good  to  the  heart.”  (7.) 
“ The  noble  who  hath  plenty  of  bread  doeth 
as  his  ka  commandeth,  he  will  give  to  whom 
he  praiseth,  it  is  the  manner  of  evening  (the 
common  supper  of  the  whole  household).  It 
befalleth  that  it  is  the  ka  that  openeth  his 
hands.  The  noble  giveth,  it  is  not  the  sub- 
ject who  winneth.  The  eating  of  bread  is 
under  the  disposal  of  god,  it  is  the  ignorant 
that  rebelleth  against  it.”  (7.)  This  pic- 
ture of  conduct  in  the  noble’s  household 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


150 

is  exactly  what  may  be  seen  every  evening 
at  the  round  supper  of  a wealthy  man. 
Antef  says,  “ I am  a regulator  for  the  king’s 
house,  knowing  what  is  said  in  every  diwan." 
(12.)  “I  am  a pleasure  unto  the  house  of 
his  master,  bringing  to  remembrance  his 
successful  exploits.”  (14.) 

59.  In  business  we  read,  “ Bend  thy  back 
to  thy  chief,  the  superior  of  the  king’s  house 
on  whose  property  thy  house  dependeth,  and 
thy  payments  in  their  proper  place.  It  is  ill 
to  be  at  variance  with  the  chief,  one  liveth 
only  while  he  is  gracious.  ...”  (Ptah- 
hotep,  31.)  “Teach  a noble  what  is  profit- 
able to  him  ; make  him  acceptable  amongst 
people,  let  his  satisfaction  reach  his  master 
on  whose  ka  depend  thy  provisions.  When 
the  stomach  of  a favourite  is  satisfied,  thy 
back  will  be  clothed  thereby.”  (Ptah-hotep, 
27.)  Here  back-stairs  influence  and  the 
evils  of  toadying  are  plainly  commended. 
Antef  boasts,  “ I am  one  exact  in  the  house 
of  his  master,  knowing  the  return  in  trade.” 
(?)  (7.)  “I  am  one  that  recognizes  his 
instructor,  that  recognizes  a counsellor ; a 
councillor  that  causes  his  counsel  to  be 
taken.”  (19.) 

To  negotiators  and  envoys  some  very 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


151 

judicious  orders  are  given.  “ If  thou  art 
a man  that  entereth,  sent  by  a noble  to  a 
noble,  be  exact  in  the  manner  of  him  who 
sendeth  thee,  do  the  business  for  him  as  he 
saith.  Beware  of  making  ill  feeling  by 
words  that  would  set  noble  against  noble,  in 
destroying  justice  (or  good  order)  ; do  not 
exaggerate.  The  washing  of  the  heart  shall 
not  be  repeated  in  the  speech  of  any  man, 
noble  or  commoner ; that  is  an  abomination 
to  the  ka.”  (8.)  This  “washing  of  the  heart” 
is  evidently  the  free  unguarded  expression  of 
feeling  about  a person,  known  to  us  as  “let- 
ting fly,”  “ expressing  the  feelings,”  “ using 
language,”  &c.,  a process  well  known  to  wash 
the  heart  by  clearing  away  ill  feeling,  after 
which  the  speaker  “ feels  better.”  To  repeat 
any  of  this  was  a high  breach  of  good  faith  ; 
only  the  exact  message  which  was  sent  should 
be  repeated.  “ I am  firm  of  foot,  excellent  of 
plan,  forcing  the  way  for  him  that  establisheth 
him,”  is  the  business-like  boast  of  Antef’s 
capacity  as  envoy.  (18.)  Those  who  sought 
justice  were  reminded  that  they  must  not 
be  touchy  if  they  could  not  be  attended  to 
at  once.  “ When  thou  art  in  the  council- 
hall,  standing  and  sitting  until  thy  going  (or 
the  movement  of  thy  business)  that  hath 


152 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


been  commanded  for  thee  on  the  earliest  day, 
go  not  away  if  thou  art  kept  back,  while  the 
face  (of  the  chief)  is  attentive  to  him  who 
entereth  and  reporteth,  and  the  place  of  him 
who  is  called  is  broad.  The  council-hall  is 
according  to  rule,  and  all  its  method  accord- 
ing to  measure.  It  is  god  who  promoteth 
position,  it  is  not  done  for  those  who  are 
ready  of  elbows.”  (Ptah-hotep,  13). 

And  even  in  death  presumption  was  not 
to  be  tolerated  : “ Do  not  build  up  thy  tomb 
above  those  who  command  thee.”  (Precepts,  5.) 


RELATIONS  TO  INFERIORS 

60.  On  the  duties  and  relations  to  inferiors 
the  repudiations  of  sins  have  much  to  say. 
The  claim  that  “ I have  not  oppressed  those 
beneath  me”  (A.  2)  is  echoed  down  to  the 
Ptolemaic  times,  “ May  it  not  happen  to 
thee  to  maltreat  an  inferior”  (Precept  7), 
and  “ Do  not  amuse  thyself  by  playing 
upon  those  who  are  dependent  upon  thee.” 
(Precept  17.) 

The  repudiation  continues,  “ I have  not 
caused  a slave  to  be  ill-treated  by  his  over- 
seer ” (A.  13)  ; “I  have  not  caused  weeping  ” 
(A.  16);  “I  am  one  silent  to  the  violent 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


153 


and  ignorant,  from  a desire  to  abolish 
greediness  of  oppression.”  (Antef,  1.) 

With  the  fine  sense  of  reserve  that  we 
have  noticed  before,  even  a favour  to  a 
subordinate  was  not  to  be  recalled  to  notice 
if  he  were  ungrateful  enough  to  forget  it. 
“ If  thou  art  gracious  concerning  a matter 
that  hath  happened,  and  leanest  to  favour 
a man  in  his  right,  avoid  the  subject,  and 
do  not  recall  it  after  the  first  day  that  he 
hath  been  silent  to  thee  (about  it).”  (Ptah- 
hotep,  29.) 

Of  the  management  of  inferiors  we  read, 
“ The  leader  of  a party  going  to  the  field 
seems  another  being.”  (Any,  53.)  “Let 
there  be  a life  of  discipline  in  thy  house  ; 
reprimand  is  healthy  for  thy  finding  out  for 
thyself.”  (Any,  20.)  But  the  care  and 
attention  was  not  to  be  confined  to  the 
house.  “ My  god  having  granted  that  thou 
hast  children,  the  heart  of  thy  father  knows 
them  (they  are  cared  for) ; but  whoever 
is  hungry  is  satisfied  in  his  own  house,  and 
I am  the  wall  which  protects  him.  Do 
nothing  without  thy  heart  (cordiality),  for  it 
is  my  god  who  gives  existence.”  (Any,  26.) 
And  long  before  in  the  repudiations  of  sins 
the  soul  declared,  “ I have  not  caused 


154 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


hunger”  (A.  15),  “I  have  not  brought 

any  to  hunger”  (A.  14),  “I  have  not 
taken  food  away”  (B.  10),  “I  have  not 
taken  milk  from  the  mouth  of  babes  ” (A. 
27),  referring  to  his  not  having  harried  the 
women  of  the  estate  with  farm  work.  And 
overworking  the  serfs  was  specially  for- 
bidden : “ I have  not  made  a man  do  more 
than  his  day’s  work  ” is  in  the  earlier  re- 
pudiation. (A.  6.) 

The  avoidance  of  pride  after  prosperity 
is  enjoined  : “ Eat  not  bread  while  another 
stands,  without  reaching  out  thy  hand  for 
him.  It  is  known  eternally  that  the  man 
who  is  not,  will  become  one  rich,  another 
poor,  but  food  will  (always)  remain  for  him 
who  acts  charitably.  A man  may  be  rich 
for  years  and  yet  become  a servant  next 
year.”  (Any,  41.)  “If  thou  growest  great 
after  small  things,  and  makest  wealth  after 
poverty,  so  that  thou  art  an  example  thereof 
in  thy  city,  thou  art  known  in  thy  nome,  and 
thou  art  become  prominent ; then  do  not 
wrap  up  thy  heart  in  thy  riches  that  have 
come  to  thee  by  the  gift  of  god  (for  there 
shall  follow)  another  like  unto  thee  to  whom 
the  like  hath  befallen.”  (Ptah-hotep,  30.) 

61.  Grasping  ways  were  specially  in- 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


155 


veighed  against : “I  am  one  open  of  face 
to  his  mendicant,  doing  good  to  his  equal.” 
(5.)  “ I am  open  of  face,  of  bountiful  hand, 

master  of  hospitality,  free  of  hiding  the 
face  ” (8),  “ I am  the  friend  of  the  miser- 
able, sweet  and  pleasant  to  him  who  hath 
nothing”  (9),  “I  am  food  for  the  hungry 
who  hath  nothing,  and  of  bountiful  hand  to 
the  miserable”  (10)  are  the  boasts  of  Antef. 
“ Let  not  thy  heart  be  extortionate  about 
shares,  in  grasping  at  what  is  not  thy  portion. 
Let  not  thy  heart  be  extortionate  towards 
thy  neighbours.  Greater  is  prayer  to  a 
kindly  person  than  force.  Poor  is  he  that 
carrieth  off  his  neighbours  without  the  per- 
suasion of  words.  A little  for  which  there 
hath  been  extortion  causeth  remorse  when 
the  stomach  is  cool.”  (Ptah-hotep,  20.) 

The  fair  treatment  and  encouragement 
of  those  who  seek  justice  is  commanded. 
“ If  thou  art  an  adviser  be  pleased  to  hear 
the  speech  of  a petitioner,  let  him  not  hesi- 
tate to  empty  himself  of  what  he  hath 
purposed  to  tell  thee ; love  beareth  away 
falsification  (or  concealment),  let  his  heart 
be  washed  until  that  is  accomplished  for 
which  he  hath  come.  If  a hesitating  man 
make  complaints  one  (a  bystander)  saith, 


156 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


‘ Why  when  a man  hath  trespassed  are  there 
no  complaints  made  to  him  (the  judge) 
about  what  hath  happened?’  It  is  good 
breeding  to  hear  graciously.”  (Ptah-hotep, 
17.)  Antef  says,  “I  am  a judge  hearing 
truth,  advising  (?)  what  is  in  the  happy 
mean”  (13),  “I  am  pleasant  in  the  diwans , 
attentive,  without  piggishness.”  (15.) 

The  steward  or  farm  bailiff  was  always  a 
very  important  person,  as  he  could  make  or 
mar  any  man,  and  might  readily  play  false. 
“Take  a steward  of  just  repute,  for  thy 
reputation  is  in  his  balance  . . . spare  thy 
hand  from  him  who  is  in  thy  dwellings,  the 
other  things  being  in  his  care.”  (Any,  17.) 
This  free  dealing  with  a trusty  steward  is 
commanded.  “ Degrade  not  the  steward, 
who  acts  as  deputy  in  thy  house.  Let  him 
not  run  after  thy  ear.  Give  him  audience 
when  he  is  in  thy  house,  and  turn  not  back 
his  requests.  Speak  to  him  honourably, 
being  honourable  on  earth  without  reproach 
for  what  he  does.”  (Any,  63.)  But  due 
caution  was  needed  before  trusting  a man 
thus.  “ Do  not  open  thy  hand  to  an  un- 
known man,  it  will  be  a loss  to  thee.  When 
goods  are  put  in  their  store-rooms  he  be- 
comes to  thee  as  a deputy,  and  will  store 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


157 


thy  things  for  himself,  and  thy  people  will 
find  him  in  the  way  to  thee.”  (Any,  18.) 
The  last  touch  is  particularly  true  in  Egypt, 
where  any  man  who  is  in  a place  of  trust 
is  soon  in  the  position  of  a go-between, 
preventing  his  master  from  seeing  too  much 
of  those  below  him. 

Of  assistance  to  others  Antef  boasts  thus  : 
“ I am  knowledge  to  him  that  knoweth  not, 
teaching  a man  what  is  advantageous  to 
him.”  (11.) 

Coming  down  to  animals  we  find  a curious 
code  of  fair  play  enjoined  in  the  first  re- 
pudiation of  sins.  Animals  might  be  caught 
in  open  ways,  but  not  by  deceit.  “ I have 
not  caught  animals  by  a bait  of  herbage ; 
I have  not  trapped  birds  by  a bait  of  “ gods’ 
bones  ” ; I have  not  caught  fish  by  a bait 
of  fishes’  bodies.”  (A.  28,  29,  30.) 

DUTIES  TO  THE  GODS 

62.  The  duties  enjoined  toward  the  gods 
are  of  interest  as  showing  somewhat  of  the 
lay  Egyptian’s  attitude  toward  religion,  and 
giving  somewhat  of  a different  side  to  that 
of  the  temple  scenes.  It  is  to  be  noticed 
that  there  is  not  a single  maxim  on  this 


158 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


subject  in  those  of  Kagemni  and  Ptah- 
hotep.  Regarding  the  king  — - the  great 
high  priest  — the  soul  declared,  “I  have 
not  cursed  the  king.”  (B.  35.) 

In  the  duties  about  the  tomb,  the  earlier 
repudiation  has,  “ I have  not  taken  the  pro- 
visions of  the  blessed  dead.”  (A.  21.)  And 
in  late  times  when  ostentation  abounded  the 
precepts  enjoined,  “ Build  not  thy  tomb  in 
thine  own  estate ; build  not  thy  tomb  at 
the  approaches  to  the  temples.”  (19,  20.) 

The  offerings  to  the  gods  were  specially 
guarded  in  the  earlier  repudiation,  “ I have 
not  cut  short  the  rations  of  the  temples  ” 
(A.  19),  “ I have  not  diminished  the  offer- 
ings of  the  gods”  (A.  20),  “I  have  not 
defrauded  the  cycle  of  the  gods  of  their 
choice  meats.”  (A.  34.)  The  sacred  property 
was  also  guarded,  “ I have  not  stolen  the 
property  of  the  gods  ” (B.  8),  “ I have  not 
driven  off  the  cattle  of  the  sacred  lands” 
(A.  35),  “ I have  not  slain  a sacred  animal.” 
(B-  r3-) 

A strange  injunction  is,  “ I have  not 
stopped  a god  in  his  comings  forth.” 
(A.  36.)  This  almost  looks  as  if  it  re- 
ferred to  checking  idiots  or  insane  persons, 
who  are  generally  supposed  to  be  possessed. 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


159 


Offence  to  the  gods  was  also  guarded 
against ; “ I have  not  done  that  which  is 
an  abomination  to  the  gods”  (A.  12),  “I 
have  not  offended  the  gods  of  any  city  ” 
(B.  42),  “ I have  not  cursed  god.”  (B.  38.) 

63.  Some  form  of  augury  seems  to  be 
referred  to  by  Any  in  the  remark,  “ If  one 
comes  to  seek  thy  views,  it  is  a reason  to 
consult  the  sacred  books.”  (Any  3.)  The 
duty  of  making  offerings  is  often  repeated. 
In  the  earlier  repudiation  it  occurs,  “ I 
approach  the  bark  of  offerings,  I approach 
the  place  of  him  who  offers  the  prescribed 
offerings.”  (A.  7.)  Any  says,  “ Make  the 
feast  of  thy  god,  renew  it  in  its  season,  it 
irritates  god  to  neglect  it ; set  up  witnesses 
after  thou  hast  made  thy  offering  the  first 
time  of  so  doing.”  (Any,  2.)  Again,  “When 
thou  makest  an  offering  to  thy  god,  guard 
against  his  abominations  ....  Do  not 
increase  his  orders  ; guard  thyself  from  ex- 
panding his  liturgies ; thine  eye  should 
regard  his  plans.  Apply  thyself  to  make 
adoration  in  his  name,  for  it  is  he  who  gives 
to  spirits  millions  of  forms,  magnifying 
those  who  magnify  him.  The  god  of  this 
earth  being  Shu,  lord  of  the  horizon,  and  his 
emblems  being  on  earth,  as  one  gives  him 


i6o  THE  OUTER  DUTIES 

incense  with  bread  every  day,  he  will  make 
to  flourish  by  his  appearing  that  which  is 
planted.  Increase  therefore  the  bread  for 
the  god.”  (Any,  39.)  “Give  thyself  to  the 
god ; guard  thyself  each  day  for  the  god, 
and  do  to-morrow  as  to-day.  Sacrifice, 
for  god  looks  on  the  offerer,  but  he  neglects 
those  who  neglect  him.”  (Any,  48.)  “ He 

who  exalts  his  spirit  by  praise,  by  adoration, 
by  incense  in  his  works,  so  that  devotion  is 
in  his  affairs — he  who  does  thus  god  shall 
magnify  his  name.”  (Any,  5.)  A somewhat 
higher  line  is  touched  by  Any  in  one  case, 
“ That  which  is  detestable  in  the  sanctuary  of 
god  are  noisy  feasts  ; if  thou  implore  him 
with  a loving  heart  of  which  all  the  words 
are  mysterious,  he  will  do  thy  matters,  he 
hears  thy  words,  he  accepts  thine  offerings.” 
(Any,  11.) 

64.  We  have  already  noticed  in  dealing 
with  the  inner  character,  how  strength,  quiet- 
ness, and  the  avoiding  of  extremes  was  set 
forth  as  the  aim  in  cultivating  the  mind  ; and 
how,  in  external  business,  self-help,  prudence, 
conciliation,  and  honesty  are  enjoined.  We 
may  now  sum  up  the  principles  of  dealing 
with  others.  The  family  duties  we  have 
seen  are  very  little  dwelt  on ; and  there 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


1 6 1 


seems  no  sense  of  the  wider  range  of  duties 
to  relatives  that  carries  so  much  with  it  to 
our  notions.  In  dealing  with  equals,  beside 
the  obvious  crimes  of  murder  and  theft, 
cheating  and  falsehood  are  strongly  repudi- 
ated ; faults  should  be  overlooked ; oppres- 
sion and  stinginess  should  be  avoided ; and 
no  mere  mischief  or  needless  suffering  should 
be  allowed,  because  it  was  unpleasant  to  see 
as  well  as  to  feel.  Friendship  was  looked  on 
as  useful,  but  without  any  enthusiasm  or 
devotion.  Haughtiness  was  to  be  eschewed, 
and  geniality  cultivated  in  social  intercourse. 
To  superiors,  ready  submission  was  com- 
mended ; and  the  influences  of  back-stairs 
and  toadying  were  not  to  be  omitted.  But 
mischief  should  not  be  made  by  repeating 
strong  expressions.  To  inferiors,  fairness 
and  kindness  was  enjoined ; past  favour 
should  not  be  harped  upon.  Pride,  grasping, 
and  brow-beating  are  all  condemned.  Trusty 
servants  should  be  respected,  and  not  humili- 
ated, and  animals  should  be  hunted  fairly  and 
without  deception.  But  with  the  gods  every- 
thing was  a matter  of  quid  pro  quo , and 
making  terms  in  the  style  of  Jacob. 

Now  the  whole  of  this  is  rather  the 
spirit  of  the  eighteenth  than  of  the  nine- 

L 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


162 

teenth  century.  Their  virtues  are  quiet 
and  discreet ; their  vices  are  calculating. 
They  belong  far  more  to  the  tone  of 
Chesterfield  or  Gibbon  than  to  that  of 
Kingsley  or  Carlyle ; they  accord  with 
Pope  or  Thomson  rather  than  with 
Swinburne  or  Tennyson.  There  is  hardly 
a single  splendid  feeling ; there  is  not  one 
burst  of  magnanimous  sacrifice  ; there  is  not 
one  heartfelt  self-depreciation,  in  any  point 
of  all  this  worldly-wisdom.  They  are  as 
canny  as  a Scot,  without  his  sentiment ; as 
prudent  as  a Frenchman,  without  his  ideals  ; 
as  self-conceited  as  an  Englishman,  without 
his  family. 

On  the  other  hand  we  must  recognize  that 
the  Egyptians  show  a wealth  of  good  quali- 
ties— good,  but  not  lovable — of  sterling 
value  for  the  constitution  of  society,  which 
gave  them  the  high  place  which  they  filled 
in  the  early  history  of  man. 

But  all  this  is  the  standard  and  not  the 
practice.  The  standard  is  not  so  very  high 
that  we  should  assume  that  the  practice  was 
much  lower  ; it  was  a practicable  standard, 
and  was  probably  effective  in  laying  hold  of 
a large  part  of  the  people.  Cold  and  hard 
as  much  of  it  seems,  we  yet  know  from  their 


THE  OUTER  DUTIES 


163 


stories  and  their  songs  that  they  had  much 
fuller  feelings  than  would  be  expected  from 
the  maxims  of  the  prudent.  And  we  must 
no  more  judge  them  entirely  by  the  cautious 
injunctions  of  their  ancients,  than  we  should 
wish  our  own  selves  to  be  pictured  in  the 
future  as  being  all  Benthams  and  Mills, 
Pecksniffs  or  Pitt-Crawleys. 


NOTES 


A.  Inherited  Intuitions. 

B.  The  Ideal  of  Truth,  Lucian. 

C.  Statistics  of  Conscience  Money. 

D.  Nature  of  the  ka. 


NOTE  A. 


INHERITED  INTUITIONS 


As  an  analogy  to  the  view  of  inherited  intuitions  of  moral 
sense  and  conscience  selecting  lines  of  action,  there  is  a 
similar  inheritance  in  the  sense  of  pain  and  pleasure.  The 
extraordinary  theories  of  special  nerves  of  pain,  and  the 
difficulties  of  defining  it  from  pleasure,  are  all  needless 
when  we  recognize  the  inherited  character  of  such  defini- 
tions. Simple  sensation  is  the  common  basis  of  both  ; and 
such  sensations  as  ancestral  and  personal  experience  have 
associated  on  the  average  with  injury  are  recognized  as  pain, 
those  associated  with  well-being  are  recognized  as  pleasure. 
The  ideas  of  pain  or  pleasure  are  entirely  an  association 
of  causes  and  effects,  and  nothing  abstractly  different  in 
nature.  The  pains  which  cannot  be  inherited,  as  those  of 
decay  and  death,  are  not  in  the  least  a dread  to  animals, 
nor  to  races  of  men,  who  are  not  reflective — pointing  clearly 
to  the  inherited  and  acquired  idea  of  pain.  During  recovery 
there  may  be  far  sharper  and  more  lasting  sensations  than 
during  injury,  and  yet  they  are  always  pleasurable,  showing 
that  not  the  intensity  but  the  connection  of  the  sensation 
gives  its  character.  This  again  is  seen  by  the  intense  misery 
of  internal  injury,  without  any  keen  sensations  ; association 
here  is  the  cause  of  pain.  Even  a short  experience  of  the 
individual  will  decide  between  pain  or  pleasure  of  a sensa- 
tion ; a medicine,  such  as  quinine,  which  may  be  very 
nauseous  at  first,  will  become  a pleasure  like  a sweetmeat 
when  it  has  been  associated  with  relief.  And  new  flavours 
unlike  any  yet  known,  as  new  fruits  or  chemical  compounds, 

167 


1 68  INHERITED  INTUITIONS 

cannot  be  distinguished  as  nice  or  nasty  at  first.  It  is  only 
when  their  effects  have  been  felt  that  a sense  of  pain  or 
pleasure  becomes  associated  with  them ; thus  showing  that 
association  alone  produces  the  character  of  a sensation. 

If,  thus,  pains  and  pleasures  are  purely  associative  ideas, 
inherited,  and  developed  in  the  individual,  the  mental  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong  are  all  the  more  likely  to  be  an  in- 
heritance of  trains  of  thought  and  ideas  which  have  proved 
to  be  successful  or  injurious. 


NOTE  B. 


THE  IDEAL  OF  TRUTH 


As  a good  study  of  the  sense  of  veracity  in  the  later  Greek 
world,  we  may  note  a piece  of  one  of  Lucian’s  Dialogues 
(“The  Liar,”  No.  52). 

“ Tychiades.  Can  you  tell  me,  Philocles,  what  is  the 
attraction  which  makes  most  men  love  to  tell  lies?  They 
even  go  to  the  point  of  saying  things  which  have  not 
common  sense,  and  listen  to  those  who  do  likewise. 

“ Philocles.  There  are  plenty  of  reasons,  Tychiades, 
enough  to  make  such  men  lie  as  only  think  of  their  self- 
interest. 

“ Tychiades.  But  the  question  is  not  there,  as  one 
says,  for  I am  not  speaking  of  those  who  lie  to  be  useful  to 
themselves.  Some  such  are  praiseworthy  when  they  have 
deceived  enemies,  or  when  in  a critical  moment  they  have 
employed  this  remedy  as  a means  of  safety  ; it  is  thus  that 
Ulysses  often  acted  to  guide  his  life  and  those  of  his 
companions.  But  I am  speaking,  my  dear,  of  those  folks 
who  without  any  need  much  prefer  lies  to  truth,  and  please 
themselves  and  make  a business  of  it  without  any  particular 
reason. 

“Philocles.  And  have  you  known  folks  of  this  kind, 
who  have  an  innate  love  of  lying? 

“Tychiades.  Certainly,  plenty  of  them.” 


L 2 


l69 


NOTE  C. 


CONSCIENCE  MONEY 

Some  further  details  about  Conscience  Money  that  do  not 
concern  the  immediate  argument  of  the  lecture  may  be 
given  here,  as  this  subject  is  one  that  has  not  yet  been 
studied.  I am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Robert 
Chalmers,  of  H.M.  Treasury,  for  informing  me  what 
materials  were  available  on  this  matter,  and  for  obtaining 
the  permission  of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  to 
enable  me  to  have  the  details  of  amounts  copied  for  my 
use  by  a clerk.  These  copies  only  concern  the  dates  and 
amounts  received,  as  the  information  about  source  or 
persons  involved  is,  of  course,  essentially  private  to  the 
Department.  The  entries  of  the  last  thirty  years  comprise 
4791  items  received,  ranging  from  id.  to  ,£4070.  All  of 
these  have  been  tabulated  and  worked  up  in  the  present 
enquiry. 

The  first  question  is  how  the  material  should  be  dealt 
with  so  as  to  obtain  the  most  intelligible  result.  The  long 
lists  of  varying  sums  have  to  be  classified  and  arranged. 
The  first  question  is  that  of  the  scale.  In  the  appendix 
to  the  Pyramids  and  Temples  of  Gizeh  I pointed  out  how 
a scale  of  equal  increments  was  not  the  true  basis  of  the 
equilateral  probability  curve.  The  difference  between  this 
and  a scale  of  equal  multiples  is  not  seen  except  where 
the  variation  is  a large  part  of  the  total  amount.  Hence 
in  most  physical  questions  it  is  never  thought  of.  But 
when  dealing  with  variations  of  many  times  the  total 
quantity — as  here  a variation  of  one  to  a million  in  the 


170 


CONSCIENCE  MONEY  171 

amount— then  the  scale  is  an  essential  question.  When 
we  look  at  any  physical  variable  of  which  the  reciprocal 
is  likely  to  be  treated,  as  for  instance  the  distance  or 
angular  parallax  of  stars,  the  density  or  volume  of  a given 
mass,  the  fractions  of  an  atmosphere  of  pressure,  or  the 
pressure  in  height  of  mercury— in  each  case  it  would  be 
clearly  wrong  to  get  different  curves  from  the  results 
because  we  read  them  on  a different  method.  Such 
difference  of  curves  would  simply  prove  an  irrationality  of 
the  scales.  But  no  such  difference  of  results  can  exist  if 
we  use  a scale  of  equal  multiples,  or  a logarithmic  scale. 
Such  was  the  reasoning  then  used. 

Now  Conscience  Money  is  an  excellent  subject  by  which 
to  test  the  validity  of  this  reasoning.  It  varies  so  enorm- 
ously that  any  scale  not  true  in  theory  could  never  yield  a 
consistent  probability  curve  from  such  material.  But  we  see 
on  plotting  out  the  amounts  on  the  scale  of  equal  multiples 
that  we  reach  a consistent  equilateral  curve  with  no  more 
divergence  than  can  easily  be  explained.  Any  scale  that 
was  not  true  in  theory  could  never  deal  so  equably  with 
material  varying  so  vastly  in  amount  as  from  id.  to  ,£4,000. 
This  result  is,  then,  one  of  the  effective  proofs  of  the  a priori 
reasoning  given  above,  that  the  true  scale  is  one  of  equal 
multiples,  and  that  probable  error  is  really  x or  -j-  .r  and 
not  + or  - x. 

Next  comes  the  question  of  what  divisions  are  most 
rational  for  dealing  with  the  material.  The  £5  note  is  one  of 
the  main  features,  and  it  would  be  obviously  wrong  to  divide 
the  scale  so  that  such  a main  factor  would  come  just  at  either 
limit  of  a division.  It  should  be  central.  And  as  £2  io,r. 
and  YIQ  are  the  next  most  obvious  amounts  we  are  led  to 
a scale  of  binary  multiples,  where  £2  ioj.,  £5,  £10,  £20,  will 
each  be  the  centre  of  a group.  Hence  the  dividing  points 
fall  at  J 2 x these  amounts,  or  £3  10 s.  8 d.,  £7  is.  5^.  ; and 
halving  and  doubling  these  limits,  down  to  1 \d.  and  up  to 
^3620  55.  4 d. 

Such  was  the  settlement  of  the  nature  of  the  scale  and  of 
its  rational  divisions  for  dealing  with  this  particular  material. 


172 


CONSCIENCE  MONEY 


Beside  the  main  total  curve  of  the  number  of  payments 
made,  the  amounts  of  which  lie  between  the  successive 
divisions  of  such  a scale,  there  are  also  curves  given  of 
lesser  portions  of  the  whole  material. 

The  “curve  of  1887-97”  is  of  value  to  show  the  real 
meaning  of  the  sudden  start  up  in  the  middle  of  the  total 
curve.  This  I referred  to  the  facility  of  sending  a Y5  note 
anonymously  and  through  the  post.  This  facility  induced 
men  to  postpone  sending  what  conscience  demanded  when 
over  Y1  until  it  amounted  to  £5  ; thus  making  the  curve  of 
payments  first  fall  below  the  probability  curve  and  then  start 
above  it  at  £5.  Similarly  the  £5  facility  forestalled  the 
action  of  conscience  and  made  men  send  in  payments  which 
would  otherwise  have  been  left  to  accumulate  ; thus  it 
actually  diminished  the  frequency  of  larger  amounts.  Now 
this  erratic  variation  has  disappeared  in  the  returns  of  the 
last  ten  years,  and  there  is  hardly  any  of  it  to  be  seen  in  the 
“ curve  of  1887-97.”  The  reason  of  this  change  seems  to  be 
very  probably  the  introduction  of  postal  orders,  by  which 
anonymous  payments  of  sums  under  _^5  can  be  as  easily 
made  as  by  the  old  ^5  note. 

Then  another  enquiry  is  as  to  the  different  types  of  con- 
science. The  commonest  type  is  but  vague,  and  sends  lump 
sums  without  much  caring  if  they  exactly  make  up  for 
deficiencies.  The  Conscience  Money  becomes  a sort  of 
free-will  offering  to  atone  for  past  deficiencies  and  keep  an 
easy  mind  on  the  subject.  A small  number  of  people  are 
more  exact,  however,  and  it  is  these  higher  classes  of  con- 
science that  are  shown  by  the  curves  of  “ amounts  exact  to 
l,”  that  is  to  say  any  even  number  of  pounds  or  of  shillings, 
such  as  6,  7,  8,9,  11,  12,  13,  14,  16,  17, etc.  ; “amounts  exact 
to  or  precise  to  the  nearest  shilling  on  £2  ior.  or  more  ; 
and  “amounts  exact  to  or  the  nearest  penny  on  £2  or 
shilling  on  £25.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  centres  of  these 
curves  are  successively  lower  and  lower  along  the  scale, 
showing  that  the  more  precise  types  of  conscience  belong  to 
those  persons  who  deal  with  smaller  amounts. 

Another  interesting  question  is  the  seasonal  distribution. 


Curves  of  varieties  of  amounts  ^from  I4  to  t.  4o7o)received  by  tKe  CKancellor  of  tKeExcKeojuer  as 

CONSCIENCE  MONEY  1867  -189  7 


CONSCIENCE  MONEY 


175 


The  effect  of  Christmas  or  quarterly  settlements  is  not 
traceable  at  all.  But  a well-marked  variation  exists, 
amounting  to  double  (both  in  the  curve  of  frequency,  and 
in  the  curve  of  the  total  amount)  at  one  time  of  the  year, 
to  what  it  is  at  another.  The  maximum  is  in  March,  the 
minimum  is  in  September.  The  meaning  of  this  appears 
to  be  that  spare  cash  is  most  abundant  in  March  and  least 
in  September.  And  the  cause  probably  is  that  as  savings 
accumulate  during  the  more  economical  season  of  the 
winter  months,  conscience  can  have  freer  sway.  When 
warm  weather  and  excursions  begin  to  be  in  view  money 
is  kept  back  for  them,  and  the  end  of  the  summer  holidays 
is  the  time  when  conscience  has  least  chance,  and  has  to 
put  up  with  promises  of  the  future. 

From  all  this  we  can  see  a little  of  the  practical  working 
and  nature  of  conscience  in  a certain  class.  It  easily  puts 
up  with  postponement ; but  has  a permanent  hold,  and 
exacts  its  claims  when  the  most  convenient  opportunity 
occurs ; whether  that  opportunity  be  the  easy  sending 
of  a ^5  note,  or  the  paying  up  when  money  has  fewest 
claims  upon  it.  It  is  more  precise  and  exacting  among 
those  persons  who  deal  with  rather  smaller  amounts  than 
with  others.  And  it  is  as  legitimately  and  honestly  followed 
in  great  things,  great  temptations  and  opportunities,  as  it  is 
in  small  matters.  Such  results,  though  rather  vague,  are  of 
unique  interest  in  this  part  of  ethics  and  psychology,  as 
somewhat  confirming  and  somewhat  enlarging  our  a priori 
notions  of  what  would  be  likely,  and  giving  a definite  and 
real  basis  of  observation. 

To  gain  some  comparative  light  upon  the  matter  I en- 
quired of  two  friends  abroad  what  were  the  views  in  their 
countries.  A F rench  Professor  replies  : “ What  you  call  ‘ Con- 
science Money  ’ exists  amongst  us,  but  I do  not  remember 
having  seen  any  published  details  of  such  restitutions ; the 
State  accepts  them,  and  places  them  in  the  receipts,  so  far 
as  I know.  I do  not  know  if  this  is  a good  criterion  of 
comparative  conscience  : our  financial  system,  for  instance, 
is  so  close  that  fraud  is  difficult,  and  therefore  occasions  for 


176 


CONSCIENCE  MONEY 


restitution  are  rare.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  number  of 
restitutions  might  be  used  to  show  the  probable  number 
of  frauds  ; and  so  perhaps  an  ingenious  statistician  might 
deduce  from  this  that  the  country  of  most  restitutions  is 
that  of  the  most  fraud,  and  where  the  honesty  of  private 
persons  is  lowest,  at  least  in  their  dealings  with  the  State.” 

A German  Professor  replies  : “ I think  that  ‘ Conscience 
Money’  is  not  paid  in  Germany,  except  in  very  rare  cases. 
It  is  always  reckoned  among  us  as  a characteristically 
English  institution.  On  the  whole  there  are  certainly  but 
very  few  frauds  practised  upon  the  State  here,  excepting 
small  cases  of  frontier  smuggling  at  the  Customs.  Such 
minor  frauds  appear  to  our  middle  classes  as  very  venial 
sins,  and  do  not  trouble  their  conscience.  And  a man  who 
practises  large  frauds  is  either  a rogue,  or  acts  from 
necessity  ; in  neither  case  will  he  make  restitution. 

“To  this  it  must  be  added  that  among  you  the  preachers 
play  a great  part,  and  influence  the  mass  of  the  people  ; 
this  has  not  been  the  case  with  us  now  for  a long  time. 
Our  Protestant  Church  is  a Government  Institution  which 
has  lost  touch  with  the  great  mass  of  the  people.  When 
with  you  a preacher  attacks  unrighteous  gains,  the  whole 
of  the  community  which  goes  customarily  to  church  every 
Sunday  hears  it.  With  us  his  sermon  is  heard  by  some 
old  women  and  a couple  of  young  girls  confirmed  the  year 
before— certainly  not  people  who  have  embezzled  money.” 

As  to  these  remarks  we  must  note  that  there  are  far 
greater  openings  for  getting  an  advantage  over  the  State 
in  England  than  there  are  on  the  Continent.  The  large 
amount  raised  as  Income  Tax — much  of  it  on  the  unchecked 
voluntary  declaration  of  the  payer — is  the  main  source 
of  under-taxation ; and  the  unfairness  of  the  department  has 
produced  a state  of  public  feeling  which  leads  persons  to 
avoid  payments,  who  would  not  withhold  them  from  other 
departments.  Probate  valuations  are  another  source  of 
under-payments  — often  honestly  misstated  at  first,  and 
corrected  afterwards.  And  the  general  lack  of  official  in- 
spection of  private  life  in  England,  and  the  liberty  of  the 


CONSCIENCE  MONEY 


1 77 


individual  prevents  the  espionage  which  would  readily  inter- 
cept frauds  in  some  other  countries. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  opportunities  of  fraud  are  greater 
the  inducements  to  restitution  are  also  greater.  The  religious 
moral  influence,  noted  by  my  German  friend,  undoubtedly 
counts  for  a good  deal,  especially  as  such  an  influence  may 
lead  to  restitution  while  merely  transitory.  But  still  more, 
perhaps,  the  sense  of  fair  play  leads  to  honesty  ; this  fair- 
ness  is,  perhaps,  mainly  due  to  the  youthful  training  in 
competitive  games,  in  which  unfairness  or  oppression  is 
reprobated  ; and  it  is  seen  perhaps  most  plainly  in  after 
life  in  the  conduct  of  the  English  policeman,  who  is  the 
servant  of  the  public,  and  not  the  State  regulator  like  the 
Continental  official.  Another  reason  for  restitutions  is 
strongly  pointed  to  by  the  character  of  the  payments.  The 
postponing  of  sums  under  £5  until  they  amount  to  a £$ 
note  shows  that  much  of  the  payments  are  due  from  chronic 
under-taxation  which  accumulates.  This  points  to  this  resti- 
tution not  being  made  for  intentional  fraud,  but  by  perfectly 
honest  people  ; such  may  know  that  they  are  undertaxed 
but  they  prefer  to  pay  up  voluntarily  rather  than  give  in- 
formation to  the  official  taxgatherer ; for  that  would  lead 
him  to  worry  and  bully  them  in  later  years  about  the  same 
sources,  and  require  them  to  prove  a diminutive  of  the 
income.  It  is  far  less  inconvenient  to  pay  up  excess  on 
an  under-estimate  than  to  have  to  pull  down  too  high  an 
estimate  afterwards.  More  fair  play  on  the  part  of  the 
taxers  would  lead  to  more  openness  and  honesty  of  the 
taxed. 


NOTE  D. 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  KA 


Among  the  various  attempts  to  understand  what  the 
Egyptians  described  as  the  Ka , little  notice  seems  to  have 
been  taken  of  the  examples  afforded  us  in  the  Precepts  of 
Ptah-hotep.  They  are  the  more  valuable  as  being  all  of 
one  age,  and  by  one  writer,  so  that  they  must  represent  and 
delimit  a single  conception,  and  their  date  is  so  early — in 
the  Vth  Dynasty — that  they  probably  show  the  original  idea. 

In  precept  7 the  guest  is  enjoined  not  to  pierce  his  host  at 
table  with  many  glances;  “it  is  an  abomination  to  the  ka 
for  them  to  be  directed  at  him.”  Here  the  ka  is  the  con- 
sciousness or  self-consciousness  of  the  man,  annoyed  by 
staring. 

Then  in  precept  10,  “ Diminish  not  the  time  of  following 
the  heart  (enjoying  pleasures),  for  that  is  an  abomination  to 
the  ka  that  its  moment  should  be  disregarded.”  The  ka , 
therefore,  is  the  seat  of  the  intention  and  desire  of  enjoy- 
ment. 

In  precept  8,  “ The  washing  of  the  heart  shall  not  be 
repeated  (words  said  in  passionate  relief  of  the  feelings), 
it  is  an  abomination  to  the  ka.”  Here  the  ka  suffers  the 
annoyance  of  another  person’s  ill-temper. 

In  precept  12  a son  who  is  mentally  like  his  father  is  said 
to  be  “ thy  own  son  to  whom  it  belongeth  that  thy  ka  begat.” 
Here  the  ka  comprises  the  mental  qualities  which  were 
inherited,  beyond  the  merely  bodily  form. 

And  the  ka  is  the  seat  of  generosity  and  kindness,  for  ;n 
precept  7 “ it  is  the  ka  that  openeth  the  hands  ” of  the  host ; 

178 


THE  NATURE  OF  THE  KA  179 


and  in  precept  27  is  mentioned  the  “master  on  whose  ka 
depend  thy  provisions.” 

From  ail  these  instances  we  can  fairly  delimit  the  ka  as 
being  the  inner  mental  consciousness  and  powers  of  thought, 
as  apart  from  the  influence  of  the  senses  and  the  communi- 
cation with  the  body.  The  Egyptian  argued,  “ If  I burn 
myself  it  hurts  the  body,  if  I wash  myself  it  cleanses  the 
body.  But  there  is  something  else  inside  which  can  have 
the  analogous  sensations  to  burning  or  to  washing  without 
anything  being  done  to  the  body.  This  must  be  then  an 
invisible  being  apart  from  the  body  ; and  as  it  has  sensations 
and  feelings  of  its  own  it  must  be  like  the  body.”  Hence  a 
second  body  of  an  immaterial  kind  was  postulated  as  the 
image  of  the  mind  or  inner  consciousness.  This  will  per- 
fectly agree  to  the  theory  of  the  ka  wandering  about  the 
cemetery  after  death  and  needing  sustenance.  And  this 
accords  with  the  powers  and  nature  of  the  ka  as  shown  in 
the  tale  of  Setna,  here  discussed  in  the  second  lecture, 
where  we  concluded  that  “ It  has  then  all  the  full  properties 
of  mind,  but  not  the  abilities  to  act  with  force  upon  matter.” 
There  is  little,  if  any,  difference  between  this  and  what  we 
define  as  the  soul,  except  that  it  has  a bodily  — though 
immaterial— form. 


PLYMOUTH 


WILLIAM  BRENDON  AND  SON 


PRINTERS 


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